Cultural Heritage Extract

Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
CULTURAL HERITAGE EXTRACT
From the Office of the First Minister
Few who have been to St Kilda and stood in
the Village surrounded by the cries of a million
seabirds can fail to have been moved by the place
and its story. This tiny Hebridean archipelago is a
place of drama, a place apart. Its inaccessibility
amplifies its remoteness creating a perception
of being ‘at the edge of the world’.
While the steep cliffs and pounding seas around
the archipelago give a sense of the overwhelming
power of nature, the very visible remains of human
habitation can only fill the visitor with a sense of
awe and respect for past generations of
inhabitants.
St Kilda stands for isolated societies the world
over. The extraordinary spirit of the place comes
from the imprint left after the ultimate failure,
largely through external pressures, of a way of life.
The twin aspects – a people’s resilience in a
hostile environment, and the contrasting fragility of
traditional ways of life in the face of overwhelming
social and economic change – give the place its
emotional power and universal applicability.
It is because of these reasons that I commend this
revised nomination for the inscription of St Kilda on
the World Heritage List to ensure it is cared for
and preserved for future generations.
The Village with a snow-clad Mullach Sgar
Chan eil mòran a tha air cuairt a ghabhail a Hiort,
agus air seasamh ’s a bhaile a-measg glaodh
millean eun-mara, nach robh air an gluasad leis an
àite agus a sgeul. Tha am buidheann beag eileanan
seo an Innse Gall mar àite gu turr eadardheallaichte, mar àite air leth. Tha ìomhaigh aig
mòran mu na h-eileanan gu bheil iad ‘aig oir an tsaoghail’ bhon a tha iad cho iomallach agus cho
duilich faighinn thuca.
Fhads a tha na creagan cas agus a’ mhuir
fhiadhaich mu na h-eileanan a toirt beachd air
cumhachd nàdair, chan ùrrainn do luchd tadhail
ach urram agus meas fhaireachdainn airson gach
ginealach de mhuinntir Hiort a dh’fhalbh, nuair a
chìth iad na tha air fhagail de an cuid togalaichean.
Tha Hiort na eisimpleir do chomainn iomallach air
feagh an t-saoghal. Tha spiorad miorbhaileach an
àite a tighinn bhon chomharradh a chaidh fhagail
nuair a thàinig dòigh beatha na Hiortaich gu crìoch
mu dheireadh, ’s a mhòr chuid air sàilleibh
cuideaman bhon taobh a-muigh. Còmhla tha an dà
phuing – misneachd nan daoine ann an tìr gun
truas, agus dòighean beatha traidiseanta, lag an
aghaidh atharraichean sòisealta agus
eaconomaiceach – a toirt cumhachd sònraichte
agus beachd shaoghalta dhan àite.
Airson na reusain seo tha mi a’ moladh an tainmeachadh seo, le ath-sgrùdadh, airson Hiort a
chuir ri Liosta Dualchas an t-Saoghail, airson
dèanamh cinnteach gun teid a chùram a ghabhail
agus gum bidh e air a dhìon airson na
bliadhnaichean a tha romhainn.
Jack McConnell MSP
1
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Contents
1.
Identification of Property
a. Country
5
b. State, Province or Region
c. Name of Property
d. Exact location on map and location of geographical co-ordinates to the nearest second
e. Maps and/or plans showing boundary of area proposed for inscription and of any buffer zone
2.
f. Area of site proposed for inscription (ha) and proposed buffer zone (ha) if any
Justification for inscription
a. Statement of Significance
9
b. Comparative analysis
c. Authenticity/integrity
3.
d. Criteria under which inscription is proposed (and justification for inscription under those criteria)
Description
a. Description of property
25
b. History and development
c. Form and date of most recent records of site
4.
d. Policies and programmes related to the presentation and promotion of the property
Management
a. Ownership
b. Legal status
c. Protective measures and means of implementing
d. Agency/agencies with management authority
e. Level at which management is exercised and name and address of responsible person for
contact purposes
f. Agreed plans related to property
g. Sources and levels of finance
h. Sources of expertise and training in conservation and management techniques
i. Visitor facilities and statistics
j. Site Management Plan and statement of objectives
k. Staffing levels
2
49
5.
Factors affecting the site
a. Development pressure
61
b. Environmental pressures
c. Natural disasters and preparedness
d. Visitor/tourism pressure
6.
e. Number of inhabitants within site
Monitoring
a. Key indicators for measuring state of conservation
67
b. Administrative arrangements for monitoring property
7.
c. Results of previous reporting exercises
Documentation
a. Photographs, slides and, where available, film/video
71
b. Copies of site management plans and extracts from other plans relevant to the site
c. Selected bibliography
d. Address where inventory, records and archives are held
8.
Signed on behalf of State Party
Acknowledgements
98
Image acknowledgements
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2
3
Soay lambs
Stac Biorach
Grey seal
Meadow and Main Street
Boreray
Kelp
Atlantic puffin
7
‘
’
Whatever he studies, the future observer of St Kilda
will be haunted the rest of his life by the place and
tantalised by the impossibility of describing it, to
those who have not seen it.
James Fisher 1947
4
5
1
Identification of Property
6
5
1
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
a.
Country
b. State, Province
or Region
United Kingdom
Western Isles
Scotland
0
N
355m .
Am
Blaid
Leathaid a'
Sgithoil
Chaoil G
.
.
Sgeir Dhomhnaill
Mol
Ghiasgar
Stac a' Langa
ige
The Geo a' Bhroig
ge
Gap . Am Boro
e na Eai
G
163m
Rubha Ghill
Calum
Mor's Lag
House Bho'n
Tuath
Kiln
289m
.
Oiseval
Saw
Pit
.
22m
.39m
Bearnaich
.218m
Sgeir nan Sgarbh
Ge
o n an
Sgarbh
Rubha an Uisge
Hirta
26m.
Tobar na Gille
ua i n
iv n
hu
St. Brianan's Chapel
Uamh Cailleach Bheag Ruaival
Ge
o Chile Brianan
An Torc
Geo Leibli
Ruaival . Giasgeir
29m
135m
eo
Mistress Stone .
gG
eig
ili
Ruid
Se
Geo Gharran
Altar
o na
Ge
Buidhe Sgeir
Mhor
Bioda
.
Tunnel
A' Bhi 113m
i Mor
ge 176m
. 124m
Na Sgarain
ias
.
h
G
Tunnel
Gob an Duin
eo
Ch G
Gob na Muce
A'
Sgeir Cul
Hamalan
iu
m
an Rubha
achs
g or
Dun
ia
sg
eir
r
al
G
' Wendy Price Cartographic Services, Inverness, 2002.
Map based on the 1928 Ordnance Survey map with additions
from aerial photography kindly supplied by Photoair through
Scottish Natural Heritage. Whilst every care has been taken
to ensure that the map is correct, it should not be used in a
situation where a high degree of detail is required.
Geo na Muir-bhuaile (Bream)
Village Bay
Ge
Clash na or
o
Point of Braba
Loch
by
Coll or
Hirta Rubha Challa
Pier
178m
.
The Boreray island group lies 6.1 kms
(3.8 miles) N. East of Leac Mhin Stac
Leac Mhin Stac
illa
e V ge
Th
Am
R
ar
Sg
Mh eo
Laimhrig
nan Gall Rubha
Mhuirich
ea n
aid Min Stac
m
Well
House
ch
na
ch
Ch G
at ob aid
h
Ge o
ai
o n n a ll
a B Ca
a G pu
lai ill
se
121m .
la
Claigeann
Mor
Lover's 282m
.
Stone
Pl
Glacan
Chonachair
or
Mullach
Medieval
Geal
bha
R ur i c h
u
a
re
Ei Arp
n
o a g an
e
G rea
oC
Ge
Ge
Carn
Mor
Taigh Faire
.289m
Radar
Station
Leathad
a' Ghlinne
n
430m
Conachair
355m
.
Amhu i nn M h
Amazon's
House
Mullach
Claigeann an
Bi
n
Ge
on
a
.72m
ul
M
Sgeir
Mhor
Tobar
nam
Buaidh
G
272m
.
Geo na Laisealaich
Surfaced road
Village "street"
Building
Cleitein
Stone enclosure
Dyke
Well
Contour (30 metres) /cliff
River/stream
Sandy beach
Mullach
Mor
M
e h oir
Ghl i n o r
uin n
M
Am h l e a n n
an
tac
aS
n
Ro
in
ha
da
on
Geo Geo
Ch
ru na
a
n
Baghan
h
am
t-S
Na
Cleitean
astac
Bhrad
Geo Bradastac
Geo Shunadail
Mullach an Tuamail
Creagan na
Rubhaig Bana
G eo
Bothies
a n Fh
Creagan
eachdaire
166m
Fharspeig
149m
.
.
ch
Bothy
rai oire ac
Cleitein
McPhaidein
Geo na Lee
A
n an M bhst
94m
a
Coinneag
Stac Lee
o
.
r
Ge each Sga
Rubha Bhrengeadail
a L eo
o n G Sgarbhstac Gob Scapanish
Ge
321
na Geo
Amh
uin
n A lltar
G
Ge
6
Eile
in
Ge Geo
o O na
Ge sca h-A
r
o
ir
bir
im
Soay
an
379m
.
Taigh
Stallar
Clesgor 236m.
Levenish
de
Stac
The Altar Glamasgeo Soay
Tobar
Mol
Ruadh Cnoc Glas
Geo Chaluim Mhic Mhuirich
339m.
Shoay
Gob na
Geo Sgeir Chàise
.
Gob
Taigh Stac
h-Airde
211m
Biorach
Gob
na
Pursan
a' Ghaill
Loch
Dugan
T
h
e
h-Airde
a' Chaim
Mol
.179m
a
Stac
n
C a m b i r Carn na a'Ghlinne Tunnel
Ch
rsa
Dona
144m
hu
Liana or Glen Bay
.
eo Beul
oP
Ge
Gob Phursan
Boreray
Cave
.
308m
Udraclete
dal
.
373m
Gearr-geo
An t-Sail
Suna
Poll Adinet
Creagan
Dun
Geo Rubha
Am Plasdair
Am Biran
Bothy
Geo na Tarnanach
Hirta
E
1 mile
0
Rubha Bhriste
Soay
1 km
W
191m .
Stac an Armin
Boreray
2 miles
Mul
la
St Kilda
St Kilda (Hirta)
0
5 km
0
ch a
n
Name of Property
A
Gl mh
es uin
hg n
il
c.
56m
.
Na Bodhan
Levenish
Levenish lies 2.8 kms
(1.75 miles) E.N.East
of Gob an Duin
d. Exact location on map and
location of geographical
co-ordinates to the nearest
second
The nominated property is the St Kilda archipelago
and the surrounding sea, lying 64 km west of
North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, the central point
is located at 57º 50’ N, 08º34’W (NGR –
NA095995). The area proposed for inscription is
contained within the square with co-ordinates:
57º54‘36”N, 08º42‘00”W;
57º46‘00”N, 08º42‘00”W;
57º46‘00”N, 08º25‘42”W;
57º54‘36”N, 08º25‘42”W.
e.
Maps and/or plans showing
boundary of area proposed
for inscription and of any
buffer zone
f.
Area of site proposed for
inscription (ha) and proposed
buffer zone (ha) if any
The total area of the proposed site measures
24,201.4ha, comprising a land area of the St Kilda
archipelago above Mean High Water Spring mark
of 854.6ha, and a sea area measured from Mean
High Water Spring mark out to the boundary of the
site of 23,346.8ha.
Paragraph 17 of the Operational Guidelines for the
Implementation of the World Heritage Convention
makes provision for the identification of a buffer
zone to protect World Heritage Sites from threats
beyond their boundaries. An independent
assessment of potential risks to the nominated site
identified a number of possible threats from
outside the site boundary. Careful consideration
was given by the UK authorities to whether the
identification of a buffer zone would be an
effective tool in managing such risks.
The physical cultural heritage features of the
nominated site are restricted to the terrestrial
areas and therefore the marine areas of the site
constitute, in effect, a buffer zone for these areas.
Through the appropriate existing measures of
protection any risks are minimised by the
measures outlined in the Management Plan, and
by the statutory protection offered by the area's
designation as a National Nature Reserve and
Special Protection Area and prospective
designations of Special Area of Conservation and
(marine) Special Protection Area. The natural
heritage and landscape properties of the site are
also afforded strong protection through the UK's
statutory planning system that directs statutory
policies in relation to Scotland's coasts. This is
further complemented by the powers and duties
vested in Scottish Natural Heritage, the
Government's statutory advisor on nature
conservation and the UK Government's
commitment to carry out a Strategic Environmental
Assessment in advance of any developments
(soon to be enshrined in statute). The whole
nominated site also lies completely within sites
separately identified for protection under European
Law (The ‘Birds Directive’ and ’Habitats Directive’)
for their natural heritage value which affords
protection against any action, within and outwith
the site, that may have an adverse effect on the
features of the site. This range of conservation
designations ensures statutory protection for a
greater area than any possible buffer zone outwith
the nominated site, and protects its setting
adequately. The conclusion was that a buffer zone
would not add to the protection afforded by other
designations and existing regulatory regimes,
reinforced by advocacy to respect the site. Further
information on the range of protective designations
and actions is provided elsewhere in the nomination
document and in the Management Plan.
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the world Heritage Site List
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2
3
Kelp and dead man’s fingers
Soay rams
Cliffs
Great skua
Souterrain
Stac Lee
The ruins of Village Street
7
‘
2
’
For many, St Kilda is the epitome of an idyllic
community, living in harmony with nature for
hundreds, if not thousands, of years, but ultimately
seduced by the comforts of modern life.
4
5
Justification
for inscription
6
a. Statement of Significance
St Kilda is an amazing place. Each of the three
main components – terrestrial and marine
natural heritage and cultural landscape – is of
outstanding universal value in its own right,
and the sequence of the following text does
not reflect a hierarchy of significance.
Although they were considered separately in
various parts of the original document, the
natural and cultural heritage of St Kilda are
inextricably linked. This extract concentrates
on the cultural heritage.
9
2
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Cultural Heritage
The World Heritage Site inscription of St Kilda for
its cultural heritage qualities was included in the
original Nomination Document, submitted in 1985.
ICOMOS recommended the inscription under
cultural criterion v of the Guidelines. However, the
World Heritage Committee in December 1986
approved only the natural heritage qualities for
inscription, and deferred the case for inscription
for cultural heritage qualities. It was to be another
six years before the Committee adopted the
'cultural landscape' criteria.
A unique combination of special qualities work
together to give St Kilda its universal cultural value.
Most important of these qualities are:
• the completeness of fossilised 19th-century
settlement and agricultural remains
• the spectacular landscape setting adapted by
people through the millenia
• the perceived remoteness of the islands
• the vivid story of human endeavour – evidence
of millennia of sustainable use, largely based on
the use of bird resources, followed by declining
viability, principally due to external influences –
on small islands in an extreme climate
• and the wealth of documentary evidence from
the 16th century to the time of abandonment,
which provides the means to appreciate and
understand the other main qualities.
To have one or two of these qualities is special,
but to have all is truly unique, resulting in the
iconic status of St Kilda in the international
consciousness.
The almost tangible spirit of the place comes from
the imprint left after the eventual demise, largely
the result of outside influences, of this way of life
after several thousand years. The twin aspects of
people’s resilience in inhospitable surroundings,
and the contrasting precarious traditional ways of
life in the face of inexorable social and economic
development give the place its emotive power. St
Kilda is unique, not only in that so much of the
physical evidence of its past culture has survived,
embraced by the spectacular natural landscape,
but that this is complemented by detailed
documentary accounts stretching back four
hundred years and more.
10
St Kilda is at once stunningly dramatic and acutely
isolated. Its remoteness is accentuated because it
is and always has been difficult to access. There is
a romantic perception of its position as the islands
‘at the edge of the world’, where the people lived
in harmony with nature. The steep cliffs and
pounding seas around the archipelago give a
sense of the overwhelming power of nature,
against which the very visible remains of human
activity fills visitors with awe and respect for past
inhabitants. But perceptions of St Kilda remain
clouded by those of 19th-century travellers who
were seeking experiences of the sublime, and
whose writing tended to ignore those things that
contradicted their expectations.
In their April 1986 report, ICOMOS set out the
following justification for inclusion under
cultural criterion v:
‘The tiny St Kilda archipelago in the Hebrides
Island is not only one of the biggest
sanctuaries of wildlife and marine life in the
North Atlantic, but also bears testimony to a
coherent ecosystem which has remained
virtually unchanged over 2,000 years of
human occupation.
From the Bronze Age to the evacuation of the
archipelago’s last inhabitants in 1930, the
islands of Soay, Hirta, and Boreray, and the
islets bordering their coasts have undergone
several periods of human occupation. At
several sites there is evidence of a Christian
influence prior to the Viking invasion, as
illustrated by numerous artefacts from the
10th century. Difficult to date, the conserved
structures – cairns, circular stone formations,
groups of monastic cells and even postmedieval villages – illustrate a remarkable
persistence of forms of primitive architecture
in a country whose traditional modes of
construction have survived to the
contemporary period.
In the opinion of ICOMOS, the St Kilda
archipelago corresponds perfectly to the
definition of a cultural and natural property
whose value should be taken into
consideration in an evaluation
complementary to that of IUCN.'
Cultural Landscape
The cultural landscape of St Kilda has been shaped
by the response of a remote island community to
the challenge of survival with access to a very
limited range of resources, particularly the reliance
on birds.
Draped over the dramatic natural landscape is the
relict cultural landscape: layered remains of human
occupation by a population of less than 200 souls.
The density of the visible structures in the
landscape is remarkable, as is the time-depth,
from the remains of the Gleann Mor settlement
dating back perhaps two or three thousand years,
up to the late 19th-century cottages of the Village
Bay settlement. Largely using the natural materials
available, primarily stone, turf and driftwood, the St
Kildans built their dwellings, cleitean (stone
storage huts) and field systems. Some structures,
such as the ancient scree structures or the later
cleitean, may be unique to St Kilda, probably
answering a particular island need; others are of
more recognisable vernacular building types. Taken
together the structures constitute an extremely
well-preserved group, and archaeological survey
and excavation over the past 20 years continues to
demonstrate the significance and potential of the
pre-19th-century archaeology. There are very few
places in the world where there is such a density
and time-depth of remains of what was a simple
rural agricultural system, and St Kilda is
exceptional in boasting this level of survival in
combination with an astonishing wealth of
literature about the lives of the inhabitants, their
stories and their folklore.
The heart of the cultural landscape of St Kilda sits
within the stunning natural amphitheatre of Village
Bay, Hirta. This relict cultural landscape of 1830s
blackhouses and their field systems, and 1860s
improved whitehouses marks the last main phase
of settlement. Dwarfed within the enveloping
crescent of near-vertical hills, the string of houses
along the Street and the segmented field divisions
are a uniquely intact and readily legible example of
a mid- 19th-century planned crofting settlement.
‘
Cleitean on Mullach Bi
’
In 1697 the archipelago was visited by
Martin Martin, and his detailed account of
the lifeways of the inhabitants, then
numbering some 180-200, may well represent
the most complete “anthropological” account
of any 17th-century European rural
community.
Andrew Fleming, 2000, ‘St Kilda: Family,
Community, and the Wider World’,
J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 19, 351-2
The village is an outstanding example of a type of
building ensemble or landscape that illustrates a
significant stage in the human history of Scotland:
the establishment of crofting townships and land
allotment, and the restructuring of communities by
remote higher authorities. This led in many cases
directly and indirectly to the mass emigration of
Scots and the creation of the Highland Diaspora
that remains so strong throughout the world.
Similarly, the village remains are the heart of an
almost complete system of a traditional human
settlement and land-use that is representative of
19th-century rural Highland Scottish culture. In
1930 this way of life became the victim of
irreversible change.
For many who visit, it is a life-changing experience
– the start of a lifelong fascination for the place
and its people. The physical remains become even
more moving to those who know something of the
evocative and often poignant stories that so
enhance the spirit of the place, and which have
important lessons for everyone about the
sustainable use of our resources. The constant
international interest in St Kilda shows that it
strikes a chord in the lives of people from all over
the world.
11
2
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
St Kilda (on the far horizon) from Rodel in the Sound of Harris
b. Comparative analysis
Cultural Heritage
The most important cultural qualities of St Kilda
are: the comprehensive and integral nature of its
19th-century settlement remains, the last period of
an occupation extending back thousands of years;
the spectacular landscape setting; the perceived
remoteness of the islands which helps create a
vivid story of human endeavour; and the wealth of
documentary evidence from the 16th century to
the time of abandonment.
19th-century Landscape
The 19th-century cultural landscape was created in
the 1830s and 1860s at a time when the
reorganisation of rural settlements was prevalent
in Scotland, and especially in the Western
Highlands and the Hebridean islands. This was a
key time in the Highland Clearances, notorious in
Scottish history for the forced removal of families
from their homelands and the destruction of their
houses – events that helped create the Highland
Diaspora around the world. But the story on St
Kilda was not part of this often violent tradition.
The village was re-ordered in the early 1830s in a
paternalistic attempt to modernise the housing and
agricultural practices of the St Kildans, and was
carried out with the islanders’ approval and
support. The subsequent rationalisation in the early
1860s, stimulated after damage during a severe
storm, led to the provision of some of the most
modern housing to be found in rural Highland
12
Scotland at the time. Beyond the village are the
remains of the wider parts of the subsistence
system, with an abundance of cleitean on virtually
every island of the archipelago, coupled with many
structures and dykes associated with the seasonal
grazing tradition.
The Highland township of Auchindrain is the
most intact and best-surviving 18th to 19thcentury nucleated village in Scotland, and has
been an open-air museum since 1975. The
village is unusual in that it was bypassed by
the Highland Clearances, and subsequently
remained almost unchanged in outward
appearance thereafter. Although sometimes
heavily reconstructed, the conservation of the
village has been carried out very sensitively
and with special regard to authenticity, and
enables visitors to appreciate how the
settlement worked and how people lived.
Auchindrain has its roots in medieval times,
and benefits from a good resource of
documentary and oral accounts of daily life.
The township is situated in the valley of a
small Highland glen that remains an
important communication route. It therefore
lacks the remote feel of St Kilda, and the
pattern of buildings is dispersed, in contrast
with the cohesion of the village on Hirta, but
both places share a remarkable degree of
intactness. Auchindrain’s associated
hinterland of fields and other resources, is
nowhere near so well preserved as that spread
over St Kilda.
There are many surviving Scottish examples of the
linear crofting settlement patterns laid out at
around this time, although most have developed or
degraded, almost beyond recognition, since being
established. It is also not uncommon to find
ruinous townships of this time which, like St Kilda,
proved not to be viable. But the St Kilda village is
without doubt the most complete and least altered
site of its type in Scotland, and in this respect is an
excellent example of settlement associated with
what is now a rapidly declining crofting way of life
– a rural tradition of great significance.
The village of Morefield in Ross-shire is a
good example of a linear rural settlement
created at the time of the Improvements of
rural Highland Scotland.
Internationally, there are countless examples of
settlements that failed in the 19th or early 20thcentury, but few, if any, survive as well as that on
St Kilda, particularly in association with their entire
landscape of resource exploitation. Those that do
survive may now be entirely ruinous and
neglected, or are more likely to have been heavily
altered since their original abandonment.
Landscape Setting
The amazing landscape setting, the subject of
hundreds of published photographs, is one of the
principal assets of the cultural landscape of Village
Bay. The sheer scale of the hills within which the
settlement seems to fit perfectly is awe-inspiring.
The lack of the bustle of modern life when
standing in the village street, and the sense of
being enveloped by the hills, is something that is
usually only found in the remotest corners of
mountain ranges. On St Kilda you are standing in
the middle of an almost intact settlement from
nearly two centuries ago, busy with structures from
earlier human activity. No relict historic landscape
of this period can rival St Kilda in this respect.
‘
An awesome landscape
’
Such is the beautiful description of
Dover Cliff, by Shakespeare; but what
would he have said, could he have looked
down from this precipice in St Kilda, which is
nearly three times higher, and so tremendous,
that one who was accustomed to regard such
sights with indifference, dared not
venture to the edge of it alone?
Edward Stanley, 1838, A familiar history of
birds; their nature, habits and instincts
(John W. Parker, London)
‘Their greatest treasure on earth…’
The village of Mastad on the Lofoten Islands of
Norway shares remarkable parallels with St Kilda.
For the inhabitants of this remote community the
seabirds that nested on the cliffs surrounding their
village were their greatest treasure. They harvested
the eggs and adult birds and salted the meat to
last them through the winter. Puffin was the
favourite meat, which they hunted with their
unique six toed puffin dog, but razorbills and
guillemots were also caught in nets. As on St Kilda
the feathers provided a source of income from
which they could buy imported goods.
Corran village linear crofting settlement
Like St Kilda, arable land was at a premium, and
the landscape forced a radial pattern of field systems
with strong similarities to the village on Hirta. The
lack of a proper harbour, and better opportunities
elsewhere, resulted in the population declining
from about 150 people until it was finally
abandoned by its last inhabitant in 1974.
13
2
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
At the Edge of the World
Part of the iconic status of St Kilda relates to its
profound feeling of remoteness. In European
terms it is certainly unusually far from the nearest
landfall with a significant population, to the extent
that the medieval writer John of Fordun (c.1380)
thought it was ‘… on the margine of the world …’.
King James IV (1473-1513) thought St Kilda too
remote to include within his kingdom. However, in
world terms there are many more remote places,
including Easter Island (Rapa Nui) – which is not
only arguably the most remote inhabited place in
the world, but had its own story of unsustainability.
The remoteness of St Kilda is therefore relative,
but no less real in terms of difficulty of access,
even today. Before the 1860s, St Kilda was
certainly remote in terms of keeping abreast of
fashions and of changes in agricultural practices
and ways of life. To outsiders it was much more
egalitarian than elsewhere, where decisions were
made at community level rather than individually,
or by being imposed by a landlord. The truth is
much more complicated than that, especially
towards the end of the islanders’ story. The St
Kildans were happy to perpetuate the impression
of simple people living simple lives far from the
rest of civilisation. They knew that this fascinated
the tourists who, from as early as the 1840s,
brought welcome new income to the islanders.
Even today, in common with most places that take
a good deal of effort to get to, St Kilda feels
remote and wild to most visitors, and remoteness
is an essential ingredient in the island’s story.
Easter Island’s diminishing resources
The story we currently understand about Easter
Island has some parallels with St Kilda. Easter
Islanders had a similarly meagre existence to the
St Kildans. They too relied for food on a very
restricted diet – mainly on sweet potatoes and
chicken. However, the much more extreme
remoteness of Easter Island led to such a
divergence of cultural traditions from the rest of
humanity, that the sustainability of natural
resources became secondary to the pursuit of
increasingly unsustainable religious practices –
ultimately leading to the demise of the
community.
14
Tristan da Cunha
There are several similarities between St Kilda
and this remote island group far out in the
southern Atlantic. Populations on both relied
heavily on the seabird harvest, and used
adjacent islands for some of their grazing
animals. Both island groups suffered from a lack
of communications, and have similar histories of
emigration and boating disasters. Both lack safe
anchorage and their economies suffered in the
20th century through a reduced demand for
produce. But Tristan da Cunha lacks the cultural
time-depth of St Kilda, and the preservation of
the cultural landscape of St Kilda is in no way
mirrored on its south Atlantic counterpart.
History of Sustainability
For many, St Kilda is the epitome of an idyllic
community, living in harmony with nature for
hundreds, if not thousands, of years, but ultimately
seduced by the comforts of modern life. It is a
story of long-term sustainability, relying on
remarkably few natural resources, and leading to
the unusual reliance on birds for food and comfort
(oil for lamps, feathers for bedding, and even
puffins for snacks). The islands are littered with
evidence of this way of life, including several
prehistoric and early historic remains of
exceptional preservation in a Western European
context. This perception of simple sustainability
was a picture of St Kilda that was painted by
visitors from early times, but is so vividly captured
in the photographs of the island way of life, caught
for posterity from the early days of photography to
the evacuation in 1930. Few other rural agricultural
communities of this period can have had more
written about them, and we are particularly
fortunate that many traditions and superstitions of
the St Kildans have been handed down to us in
writing, poetry and song.
Soay sheep
Soay sheep are arguably the oldest and best
preserved cultural artefact in Scotland. They
are believed to be more or less unchanged
since the earliest sheep were domesticated by
Neolithic farmers – perhaps some 7,000 years
ago. The wild ancestors of sheep (an entirely
natural creation) were taken into captivity and
subjected to selective breeding by the early
farmers to form domestic breeds of sheep. In
the same way as any other object fashioned by
the human hand – a rock carving, a building,
an item of clothing, a cultural landscape –
they can be regarded as a cultural artefact.
Any other artefact found in pristine condition,
apparently exactly as used by Neolithic
farmers, would be accorded the highest
significance and subject to rigorous
conservation measures. Soay sheep deserve
this degree of recognition.
1. Vaeroy Bay- Mastad
2. Dividing the northern fulmar catch
15
2
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
The story of successful use followed by decline
and abandonment is not unusual in island
communities on the western seaboard of Europe.
Mingulay is another example of a Hebridean
economy with a heavy reliance on birds, which
ultimately failed in 1911, while the very remote
island of North Rona was abandoned as early as
1844. Islands along Ireland’s west coast have had
similar fates, and are also considered to be
remote. The monastic community on the World
Heritage Site of Skellig Michael went out of use in
medieval times. Although perhaps not comparable
to St Kilda in terms of economy or social
organisation, it is, however, similarly rare in being a
truly fossil landscape.
Mingulay – ‘The near St Kilda’
The island of Mingulay, towards the southern tip
of the Western Isles, is sometimes referred to as
'the near St Kilda', and in several ways this
comparison is justified. Like St Kilda, Mingulay
was evacuated in the first part of the 20th century
(1911) when the few remaining islanders were
resettled. The island remains deserted apart from
occasional visitors – including members of the
British Royal family, for whom this is a favourite
stopping-off point during their holidays. The
comparison with St Kilda is in part due to the
relative remoteness of Mingulay – not in terms of
distances from other places, but because of the
unreliability of the landing place; even today, like
St Kilda, no matter what transport is being used,
travellers will only be sure of getting there when
their feet touch dry land.
Like St Kilda, fowling was a significant activity in
the lives and economy of the Mingulay islanders,
and the cliffs continue to be home to large
populations of seabirds. However, fishing formed
a larger part of the Mingulay economy, as,
although still dangerous, the waters around
Mingulay are less treacherous than those further
into the Atlantic Ocean.
Mingulay Village is nucleated, and was never
restructured like Village Bay on Hirta. Nor does
the island benefit from anything approaching the
wealth of documentary information that has been
written about St Kilda. Nevertheless, Mingulay is
a place where it is possible to step into the past,
and to enjoy the idyllic peace and tranquillity of
the Hebrides.
Similar in area to Hirta, Mingulay’s (640ha) cliffs are
only about half the height of St Kilda’s. They hold
large colonies of seabirds – more than 8,000 pairs
of northern fulmar, 3,000 black-legged kittiwakes,
thousands of guillemots and razorbills, about 400
shags and two-dozen great skuas. Mingulay has
13 species of breeding seabirds (compared with
17 species on St Kilda), lacking small petrels,
shearwaters, Arctic skua and northern gannet (but
it does have nesting Arctic terns), but supports 18
species of landbird compared with only nine on
The village on Mingulay survives extremely well,
in part because many of the huddle of
blackhouse shells have been inundated with sand
– often to wall-head height. While being buried in
sand is generally excellent in terms of the longterm conservation of the remains, it does make it
more difficult for visitors to imagine themselves
standing in the middle of the village when it was
in use – one of the most moving experiences of
St Kilda.
Recent archaeological survey has revealed a
number of significant remains of prehistoric and
later date. Also owned by The National Trust for
Scotland, Mingulay and the adjacent islands are
currently the subject of more detailed
archaeological investigation.
16
Fowling for common guillemots at foot of Conachair
(1831)
St Kilda. It also has its own distinctive form of
fieldmouse. Grey seals have recently come to
gather to moult on Mingulay’s deserted beaches,
and a few have pupped around its shores since
its inhabitants abandoned the island.
North Rona – ‘the Distant Isle’
Although much smaller in scale (only 120ha in
extent and 107m at the highest point), with much
less spectacular topography, the island of North
Rona bears some similarities to St Kilda. It is
owned by Barvas Estate but managed since 1956
by Scottish Natural Heritage as a National Nature
Reserve. Extremely remote, and with a heavy
reliance on fowling, the small community on
North Rona lived in a cluster of houses of
medieval origin, adjacent to a chapel dating from
the 7th or 8th century . The village was not
affected by the early 19th-century fashion for
restructuring, largely because the island has been
deserted since 1844. This makes the remains of
particular interest in terms of Scottish medieval or
later rural settlement studies.
pairs of great black-backed gulls. With more
space the great skuas of St Kilda have increased
in the same time period to about 170 pairs.
Despite its tiny size, North Rona has the same
number of breeding landbirds as St Kilda. It has
no small mammals but, with a third of its area
being a low-lying peninsula, some 1,100 grey seal
pups are born every autumn – very many more
than on the cliff-bound coast of St Kilda.
Due to its small size North Rona has been well
surveyed for plants and it is not surprising
perhaps that it is scant in species compared with
St Kilda. Amongst lower plants for instance, 87
species of lichens have been recorded (compared
with 194 for St Kilda); only eight liverworts and 14
mosses (compared with 56 and 104 respectively
for St Kilda).
North Rona has 14 species of seabirds, against St
Kilda’s 17, lacking northern gannet and Manx
shearwater and Arctic skua but having about a
dozen pairs of Arctic terns. There are some 3,500
pairs of northern fulmars and the same number
of black-legged kittiwakes, several thousand
common guillemots and Atlantic puffins, fewer
razorbills, gulls and storm-petrels (both European
and Leach’s), and about 150 pairs of European
shags. No more than 20 pairs of great skua
breed, hemmed in by a colony of almost 1,000
1. Township of Mingulay
2. Monastic cell, North Rona
17
2
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Irish Seaboard Islands
Skellig Michael
The best surviving example of an isolated early
medieval monastic island settlement on the Celtic
fringe of Europe, Skellig Michael gives us clues
about what parts of St Kilda might have looked
like in these early times – from around the 6th to
8th centuries AD. A spartan and very remote
existence, the monks lived on birds, eggs and
fish, along with produce from a sheltered
monastic garden.
The monks lived in cellular beehive structures
made from local materials. Although much later in
date, Calum Mor's house in Village Bay, Hirta,
could represent an evolutionary development of
this type of structure.There is, however, only
circumstantial evidence for the presence of an
Early Christian monastic community on St Kilda.
Skellig Michael was inscribed on the World
Heritage List in 1996.
Innishmurray
Also with very well preserved monastic remains,
but of more typical form, Innishmurray has a long
history of occupation which ended in 1948 with
the evacuation of the last 46 inhabitants. Only
four miles offshore, the island was nevertheless
cut off for weeks at a time during winter, and for
several days each summer.
Like St Kilda, natural resources were relatively
poor and restricted, but on Innishmurray the food
supply was based on fish rather than birds. In the
19th century and up to the evacuation, however,
the economy was mainly based on the sale of
illicit whiskey.
were taken more as a delicacy than as part of the
staple diet.
Although the arrangement of the villages differs,
the house type has similarities with those of St
Kilda's Village Bay. Originally thatched with reeds,
felt was later used for roofing.
Innishmaan
One of the Aran Islands, the geology of
Innishmaan was suitable for creating dykes
around the small fields to protect the meagre
soils from erosion. The resultant landscape has
created an impressive pattern of conjoining fields,
part of a continuing cultural landscape.
Tory Island
The distinctive arc of Village Bay on St Kilda is a
response to the form of the available landscape
and the resources within it. A similar layout
survives, on Tory Island on the west coast of
Ireland, where the arc of the village fits within a
small area of land suitable for agriculture, and a
fan of strip fields emanates from the house plots.
While many of the places cited above have
fascinating stories to tell, St Kilda retains by far
the most evocative physical legacy of a tiny,
remote island community, dwarfed by nature yet
able to live in harmony with its environment until
the values and influences of the wider world
made the islanders’ way of life untenable. Today,
visitors can still stand in the village street and
easily imagine the community in its heyday, and it
is this experience that touches the heart of
everyone who has made the pilgrimage to the
island ‘at the edge of the world’.
Great Blasket
With a population of up to 200 in the past, Great
Blasket was abandoned on 17 November 1953
after a steady decline. In the early 20th century,
scholars visited and encouraged the islanders to
document their folklore and traditions, and a
strong Irish Gaelic culture was recorded for
posterity – in music, poetry and prose.
Up to the early 19th century rod fishing was
practised, but a new type of boat opened out the
possibilities of fishing on open waters. Other than
in times of food shortages, birds and their eggs
18
Tory Island
Skellig Michael
19
2
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
c. Authenticity/integrity
Cultural
The authenticity and integrity of the remains on the
islands has been assured through the ownership
and stewardship of The National Trust for Scotland
(NTS). Since 1958, NTS Work Parties have visited
the islands to undertake the conservation of the
principal buildings and ruins. Even from early days,
this work was carried out according to the best
conservation practices of the time. Great regard
was paid to the authenticity of the appearance of
the buildings and materials used in their construction
– albeit with a small degree of compromise to
allow for the availability of materials and more
modern health and safety requirements.
In 1957, just 27 years after the evacuation of
the population, the significance of the remains
of the village was recognised. The Royal Air
Force was at this time establishing their Base
on Hirta, and were planning to use the stone
from the houses of the Street as road
bottoming. However, representatives of the
Nature Conservancy and the NTS fought
vigorously against this, and thereby secured
the future of the remains.
In order to make it possible for Work Parties and
researchers to be able to use the islands, a number
of buildings have been re-roofed and re-constructed
– very largely in accordance with their original
appearance. They have been fitted out internally
for modern needs but in a way that is reversible.
The first six houses of the Street are used for the
benefit of short- and long-term visitors:
No. 1 – Kitchen, communal area, and Leader’s
accommodation for Work Parties;
No. 2 – Female Work Party members’ dormitory;
No. 3 – Museum, including some original St
Kildan artefacts;
No. 4 – Male Work Party members’ dormitory;
No. 5 – Workshop;
20
No. 6 – Reconstructed house, with the internal
room layout as it would have been in the
early 20th century.
Factor’s House – Interior plan retained, now used
to accommodate the St Kilda Warden and natural
heritage researchers;
Church and Schoolroom – Re-roofed, repaired,
and restored internally. Services held occasionally
in the church; schoolroom interior restored and
schoolroom furniture used for exhibition purposes;
Store – Ruin reconstructed to appearance before
destruction in 1918 by German U-boat. Used to
house researchers, and as a store;
Manse – The only historic building to have been
substantially altered internally without regard to its
historical layout. Provides accommodation for Base
staff, contractors and visitors.
Many other structures along the Street and in the
Village Bay area of Hirta have been carefully
maintained for over 40 years, and retain their
appearance from the time they came into the care
of the NTS. Work Parties regularly undertake likefor-like repair of unroofed houses, cleitean (mainly
within the Village Bay area) and drystane dykes
(walls). Work Parties also undertake conservation
painting of the gun beside the Store – installed in
1918 following a U-boat attack.
Ministry of Defence Constructions
Even as early as 1957, the NTS was careful to
restrict modern developments to areas least likely
to affect underlying archaeological deposits or to
compromise historic structures. The present Base,
built in 1969, lies in glebe land (associated with the
church) which is shown on 19th-century maps as
being under cultivation, and no significant
structures are thought to have been removed in
order to accommodate the new buildings. Trial
excavations in 1987-88 showed that some areas
had been badly disturbed during the construction,
but also showed little evidence that earlier
deposits had been present in this arable area.
Apart from the main Base, several infrastructure
features have had an impact on the landscape, but
all are removable – albeit at considerable effort in
some cases:
Road – Single-track concrete road leading from the
Base in Village Bay to the radar facilities on top of
Mullach Sgar and Mullach Mor, likely to remain as
a scar for several decades if removed;
Helicopter/landing craft landing place – Large
concreted area near the beach;
Fuel tanks – Near the beach, part-concealed;
Water tank – The main freshwater reservoir for the
island, painted green to blend in; due to be
removed and relocated underground;
Radar masts and associated equipment
buildings – Largely removable, but on barren
hilltops where vegetation would be very slow to
recolonise bare areas;
Gabion baskets – Coastal defences which
themselves promote erosion at the edges and may
lead to major collapse if removed; subject to
current coastal erosion management study;
Ablutions block – Beside Factor’s House, used for
shower, washing and toilet facilities for Work
Parties and campers. One of the last remaining
structures from the early phase of the Base, it is
easily removable;
Quarry – Beside the road, half-way up the hill, it
has potential for land fill but would be very difficult
to fully reinstate.
Measures are being put in place, where deemed
appropriate, to allow for the removal of all or part
of the installation at the end of the MoD lease.
Prior to removal all such features will be carefully
recorded at an appropriate level of detail. In the
meantime, the MoD and NTS are working to
remove redundant structures and minimise the
visual impact of those still required.
d. Criteria under which
inscription is proposed (and
justification for inscription
under those criteria)
Cultural Criteria
St Kilda also fits with three of the cultural criteria
defined by UNESCO (UNESCO World Heritage
Operational Guidelines 1999, Para. 24):
24 (a) (iii) the islands bear an exceptional testimony
to a cultural tradition which has now disappeared,
namely the reliance on bird products as the main
source of sustenance and livelihood and of the
crofting way of life in Highland Scotland. St Kilda
also represents subsistence economies
everywhere – living in harmony with nature until
external pressures led to inevitable decline;
24 (a) (iv) the village is an outstanding example of a
type of building ensemble or landscape, which
illustrates a significant stage in the human history
of Scotland; the establishment of crofting
townships and land allotment, and the
restructuring of communities by remote higher
authorities which often led to the mass emigration
of Scots and establishment of Scottish enclaves
around the world;
24 (a) (v) similarly, the village and associated
remains are the most complete example of a
traditional human settlement and land-use which is
representative of 19th-century rural Highland
Scottish culture which, in 1930, became the victim
of irreversible change.
Cultural Landscape
‘Cultural landscapes often reflect specific
techniques of sustainable land-use, considering
the characteristics and limits of the natural
environment they are established in, and a specific
spiritual relation to nature. Protection of cultural
landscapes can contribute to modern techniques
of sustainable land-use and can maintain or
enhance natural values in the landscape.’
(UNESCO World Heritage Operational Guidelines
1999, Para. 38).
There are two strands to the cultural landscape of
St Kilda. The first falls under UNESCO Cultural
Landscapes Category i: the planned settlement
which now surrounds Village Bay is a clearly
21
2
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
22
defined landscape designed and created
intentionally by man. Rather than consciously
being designed for aesthetic reasons, however,
the village was created in the early 1830s as a
deliberate attempt to ‘improve’ the social and
economic use of the island’s agricultural resources,
in line with similar initiatives elsewhere in the
Scottish Highlands.
However, the mid-19th-century pattern of the village
is the endpoint (and counterpoint) what was until
then an organically evolved landscape (Cultural
Landscapes Category ii). This landscape developed
both physically and spiritually, inextricably in
response to its natural environment over 5,000 or
more years. The St Kilda archipelago is particularly
well described by sub-category ‘a’ of Cultural
Landscape Category ii: a fossil landscape in which
an evolutionary process abruptly came to an end at
some time in the past: the actions of the 1830s
fossilized the earlier settlement and boundary
patterns; whilst the evaucation of the 1930s and
subsequent history have resulted in the fossilization
of most of those of the mid-19th century. Many of
its significant evolutionary features are, however,
still visible in material form, and the village and
other features have been preserved since coming
into the ownership of the NTS.
Fetching water
23
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2
3
Soay lamb
Cleitean
Common starfish and Sagartia elegans
Northern fulmar
Sea pink
Finlay and Christina MacQueen
Cliffs
7
‘
The description of St Kilda that does not contain
superlatives has not been written …
’
It is a place of high cliffs, moody weather and teeming
bird life. All of those add to the qualities of St Kilda,
but so much of what is special about the islands
is rooted in its human history.
4
5
3
Description
6
a. Description of Property
25
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
26
Soils
Professor Andy Meharg and a team from
Aberdeen University have an on-going
programme studying samples of soil from
different parts of Hirta, the main island of the
St Kilda archipelago. Samples were collected
from grazing lands, from fields, and from
midden pits where, in the past, waste was
collected for manuring. Analysis showed that
levels of toxic chemicals from some of the
fields and from the pits even now remain at
high levels – which may have affected the
fertility of the land. The pollutants – including
lead, zinc, cadmium and arsenic – can be
attributed mainly to the use of seabird
carcasses in the manure that was spread
across the village fields. Tens of thousands of
birds were captured each year, so a
considerable amount of waste was generated.
Seabirds tend to have elevated levels of a
range of potentially toxic metals in their
organs. When traveller Martin Martin visited
in 1697 he commented on the island's fertility.
A deterioration in the crops is recorded by the
mid-18th century. The suggestion is made in
this study that this pollution may have caused
the reduction in crop quality although there
was a general deterioration in climate (often
referred to as The Little Ice Age) throughout
Britain at this time, with many poor harvests
recorded in the Hebrides during the 18th
century. This recent work has also provided
more information on soil management. Soil
was deliberately moved from impoverished
areas to the main cultivation places, where
instead of a few centimetres the soil has been
built up over 1m in parts of the village fields.
Landscape-scale movement of soil was not
uncommon in the Scottish Highlands and
Islands.
Landscape
All the islands of the St Kilda group rise abruptly
from the ocean floor at a depth of about 70m. The
two major rock formations, the granite and the
gabbro have eroded to give quite different
topography. The granite hills, Conachair and
Oiseval, are smooth paps; the gabbro hills, Dun,
Mullach Bi, the Cambir, Soay, Boreray and the
major stacks, are castellated, bastion-like masses.
On Hirta, the flowing contours of Mullach Sgar,
Mullach Mor, Conachair and Oiseval, together with
the horseshoe of Village Bay, combine to form a
steep amphitheatre open to the sea on the
south-east. Gleann Mor possesses the same
smooth outline and wide, U-shaped form, but
opens to the north. The highest point on Hirta is
the beautiful cone of Conachair. Mullach Sgar is
connected to the hogback ridge of Mullach Geal
and Mullach Mor by Am Blad, a broad col over
320m high between these north and south bays.
The views in either direction, but particularly over
Village Bay, are stunning and emphasise the
vertical scale of the islands. Mullach Bi on the
rugged west coast is the second highest summit;
it is joined by a narrow neck to the Cambir, the
most northerly point of Hirta. The Amhuinn Mhor
and the Amhuinn a'Ghlinne Mhoir are the only
streams of any size. Freshwater springs occur at
several localities on Hirta, with other springs on
Soay and Boreray, but not on Dun. A cruise below
their towering walls amongst the screaming
seabirds, is an unforgettable, humbling and aweinspiring experience even without ever landing on
these satellite islands.
The official description of the St Kilda National
Scenic Area is disappointingly brief, highlighting
that one must visit the place to fully appreciate its
sheer scale and stark beauty. ‘The description of St
Kilda that does not contain superlatives has not
been written … the islands are of volcanic origin
and have been weathered by the ocean into
profiles that never fail to impress all who set eyes
upon them. The three larger islands … exhibit
precipices that plunge into the sea. Stark, black,
precipitous cliffs contrast with steep grassy green
slopes and every element seems vertical. Caves
and stacks are a feature of every coast except the
smooth amphitheatre of Village Bay on Hirta, and
the cliffs are thronged with sea-birds, gannet and
fulmar being more prolific here than anywhere else
in Britain.’ Sir Julian Huxley called Stac Lee
‘... the most majestic sea rock in existence’ and
Geikie has described Conachair as follows:
‘Nowhere among the Inner Hebrides, not even on
the south-western side of Rum, is there any such
display of the capacity of the youngest granite to
assume the most rugged and picturesque forms. It
is hardly possible to exaggerate the variety of
outline assumed by the rock. To one who boats
underneath these cliffs the scene of ceaseless
destruction which they present is vividly impressive.
Boreray and Soay are no less impressive with their
cliff-girt green turf pasture, and Dun has a highly
crenellated profile.’ This curt paragraph hardly does
justice to St Kilda but the photographs and images
included in this World Heritage submission will
speak more eloquently to those who have yet to
experience the islands in person.
Village Bay
Cultural Heritage
The importance of the cultural heritage of St Kilda
centres on the extraordinary post-medieval remains
coupled with exceptional supportive documentary
evidence. For the most part the archaeological
record relies on the remains still visible on the
ground. A few relatively small-scale excavations
have also taken place, shedding light on the nature
of the sometimes-rich buried deposits.
Documentary Evidence
The way of life on St Kilda has been remarkably
well documented in the writings of early visitors to
St Kilda, such as Monro in 1549 and Martin Martin
in 1697. Other key works include Macaulay’s
History of St Kilda (1764) and the writings of the
Rev. Neil Mackenzie from 1829-1843. Illustrative
material by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (1812) and
Sharbau’s plans of 1860 are immensely useful in
clarifying the texts, and Captain Thomas’s sketch
of Blackhouse K in the 1860s is also revealing. To
these records must be added the remarkable
photographic archive for St Kilda, which
documents the life and times of the inhabitants
from about 1860 to the evacuation and beyond.
These documents and illustrations have allowed
the flesh to be put on the bones of the
archaeological evidence, and have been drawn
upon extensively to support the interpretations in
the following descriptions. These accounts do,
however, have to be read with caution: they were
almost all written by outsiders, most of whom had
their own hidden agendas which are reflected in
their writings.
27
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
An island paradise?
Virtually all the historical accounts have been
written by visitors to St Kilda, and recent
research has begun to question the accuracy
of the information that they have passed
down to us. The published reports of Martin
Martin, the first major chronicler of the
islands, are very positive about the islanders,
but associated papers and correspondence
hint that he was generally reporting what his
sponsors wanted to hear. Their honesty and
cheery disposition might not have been the
whole story.
Similarly, convincing arguments are emerging
to suggest that 19th-century visitors had a
very clear impression of what they wanted to
see and experience during their St Kildan
visit. These expectations arose out of the
Sublime movement, with roots in the Scottish
Enlightenment of the 18th century. Their
accounts therefore focus on the remoteness,
the noble savagery, the spectacle of the
landscape, etc. Even today, the available travel
literature perpetuates the qualities of the
Sublime, influencing modern visitors’
perceptions of the past and present of the
islands.
28
1. Kelp
2. Sea anemones and sponges
3. Ross coral
‘
’
Rather than relying on these tales as
ethnographic accounts, we must recognise
that they say a good deal more about the
moral, economic and aesthetic judgements of
the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie than about
the everyday life of the
St Kildans.
Fraser MacDonald, 2001, ‘St Kilda and the
sublime’, Ecumene 8 (2), 151-174
Recent research has asked the simple question
why, in such an apparently egalitarian utopia, there
was a widespread need for the famous wooden
tumbler locks, of which several examples still
survive. What were the islanders trying to keep
under lock and key? And was it outsiders they
feared, or the attentions of their fellow islanders?
Careful scrutiny of the archaeological,
ethnographic and historical records is revealing
more and more evidence that contradicts the
received wisdom about life on St Kilda. But
although life may turn out not to have been all that
different from that on similar Hebridean islands,
even this knowledge is unlikely to unduly diminish
the powerful experience of the place that most
visitors still take away with them.
Early Prehistoric
In 1764 Macaulay reported the existence of a
stone circle at Tigh Stalar, Boreray, describing a
typical Late Neolithic example, but in 1876 Sands
could find no trace of this structure. If it did indeed
exist this would represent the earliest known
human occupation on St Kilda; recently discovered
Neolithic pottery certainly confirms activity at this
time. The Rev. MacKenzie wrote of grassy
mounds, the ‘abode of fairies’, which overlay stone
cists sometimes containing bones and mostly
containing coarse pots. These burial mounds,
which were cleared away in the 19th century,
might be of Bronze Age date; one survivor may be
the underground cell in the lower meadow of
Village Bay. ‘Cairns’ on Mullach Sgar are now
regarded as more likely being later features. Even
after three excavations there is still insufficient
evidence to know whether the ‘boat-shaped’
settings at An Lag above Village Bay might
represent burial or ritual structures of prehistoric
date.
Iron Age
The Iron Age in the Hebrides could be argued to
extend into the 18th century, but here will be
considered to stop in the wake of Viking influence.
Some of the structures at Gleann Mor, including
the Amazon’s House (seen by Martin Martin in
1697), could represent the earliest surviving
domestic buildings on St Kilda. If they are of Iron
Age date, then they are of very considerable
significance because of the extent of their survival.
The horn-shaped protuberances on some of the
Gleann Mor structures have been termed
‘gathering folds’ and may date from more recent
shieling activities.
The presence of a souterrain – an underground
structure – is also suggestive of Iron Age activity.
The structure known as Tigh an t-Sithiche (House
of the Fairies) at Village Bay has been excavated no
less than four times, with some success in terms
of producing dating evidence. Over 30cm of peat
ash and soot covered a paved floor with a drain
beneath, and finds included: coarse pottery, some
of Iron Age type; hammer stones; stone loom
weights or net sinkers; stone ard tips; querns;
stone lamps; shells; animal bones; and a Viking
iron spearhead. Pottery excavated in the late 1980s
has been dated (by thermoluminescence) to AD
190±360, confirming activity on the islands at this
time.
From 1998 onwards, excavations on the screes
below Mullach Sgar have located the remains of
structures containing Iron Age pottery; one such
structure, previously entirely hidden in the scree,
survives to almost 1.5m high in places.
Stone tools are found in abundance on Hirta. They
would have been used in agriculture as digging
points, and are often very skilfully worked. The
distribution of their findspots is focused around
the areas that once were fields. The tools were
often discarded in Village Bay and subsequently
reused as pinning stones in cleitean and other
structures. Such tools were found when
excavating the souterrain, and are similar to those
from the Northern Isles where they are dated to
the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age period. Excavations
in 2000 in a structure dated to the Iron Age
revealed probable debitage from working such
tools, which would give the earliest evidence to
date for their manufacture on St Kilda. Work in the
late 1990s showed that several areas above the
screes of Mullach Sgar were used for quarrying
29
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Viking sword. Recently excavated finds of steatite
were probably brought from Norse Shetland, while
pottery has been dated to AD1135±170. Early
Christian grooved crosses built into House 16 and
Cleit 74 are thought to show some Norse influence,
but the presence of various Scandinavian-type
place-names is an even better measure of this
strong influence on the islands, which probably
extended to the end of the 13th century.
The ‘boat shaped’ appearance of the twenty or so
settings at An Lag might have been expected to be
of Norse origin, but the form of these stone
settings is often not convincingly boat-shaped
overall, and their dating remains unknown.
Medieval
1. Wooden tumbler lock
and a surprising amount of quarrying had taken
place on the high ground between Mullach Sgar
and the slopes of Conachair. Indeed, some of the
apparently ‘glacial moraine’ deposits in this area
may turn out to have been substantially altered by
human action – spoil heaps from centuries of
stone quarrying.
Iron Age/Viking/Early Medieval
Several finds of Viking date and Norse influence
have been found on Hirta. These include two
Viking brooches of the 9th or 10th century, the
Viking spearhead found in a souterrain, and a
2. Village and bay from the south
30
(Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 1812)
The medieval (taken here to mean pre-1830s) core
of settlement seems to have centred on a now
barren area at and just above the present head
dyke, and is featured on a sketch of 1812 by Sir
Thomas Dyke Acland.A recently-discovered sketch
of the Village in 1831 shows that blackhouses
actually stretched down towards the shore, and
platforms thought to be associated with these
structures have now been noted beneath and
around the Consumption Dykes.
Martin Martin records that the well named Tobar
Childa was in Village Bay, and Macaulay describes
the layout of the settlement in his time. The
‘tolerable causeway’ between the houses is no
longer visible within the grassy terraces, but the
patchwork of small, irregular enclosures in this
area may have been contemporary with the
medieval settlement.
All but one of the pre-improvement houses are
said to have been removed when the village was
replanned in the 1830s, but a few other traces may
also survive within cleitean. Calum Mor’s House –
3. Early Christian carved crosses
4. Calum Mor’s House
a ‘beehive’ type structure but with external turf
insulation giving a mound-like appearance – may
well be the sole intact survivor. Further reasons for
the poor survival of medieval structures could be
the re-use of stones for dyke and cleit building, but
also, as MacKenzie (in the mid-19th century)
records, when new houses were built, old ones
were usually removed. Outlying areas of cultivation
and enclosure of this period can be found at
Ruaival and An Lag, while some structures at
Gleann Mor may have been re-used and new ones
built as shielings.
Three chapels are said by Martin Martin to have
existed on Hirta in 1697: Christ’s Church, probably
where the current burial ground stands; St Brianan’s
at Ruaival; and St Columba’s at the western fringe
of the village area. A further chapel or ‘teampull’ is
said once to have stood on Boreray but by 1862
was represented only by a single inscribed stone.
The oval graveyard, which was used until the 20th
century, is likely to be of medieval origin,
associated with Christ’s Church, but the scatter of
small headstones leaves few clues as to who was
buried there and when. Martin Martin describes
seasonal shelters or bothies used during the
seafowl harvesting on Stac Lee. However, the
most common type of small structure is the cleit,
of which about 1,260 examples have been
recorded on Hirta, and more than 170 others on
the outlying islands and stacks: even in Martin’s
time he guessed that there were around 500 of
these unusual structures. Cleitean are small
drystone structures of round-ended rectilinear
form, with drystone walls and a roof of slabs
covered with earth and turf. Within this basic plan
are numerous variations of door position, and
some examples (which may have been converted
from earlier dwellings) even include integral
adjoining cells. Although perhaps influenced by the
Norse tradition of storehouse building, the cleitean
may equally have been derived from the basic
design of earlier St Kildan buildings such as the
Amazon’s House and Calum Mor’s House.
Blackhouses and Early 19th-century
Buildings
Monastic cells?
Although undated, and constructed
differently from other known Early Christian
structures, the two cellular structures
investigated near the site of St Brianan’s
chapel could conceivably represent the
remains of a monastic foundation – perhaps
the ‘monkish cells’ referred to in a historical
document. The presence of three chapels on
so small an island as Hirta in the late 17th
century begs explanation, and the islands are
certainly remote enough to satisfy the
requirements of Early Christian hermits. The
dedication of one chapel to St Columba might
support this hypothesis.
Hidey Holes
Always hidden, and often forgotten, traces of
at least 16 structures have been found in the
screes below Mullach Sgar. Stories tell of their
use as hiding places in times of strife, when
pirates or other unfriendly visitors made an
appearance. The islanders are said to have
hidden in the screes in 1746, when soldiers
came in search of Bonnie Prince Charlie
who they thought might have taken refuge
on St Kilda.
Cleitean were usually used as stores, and their
generally loose wall construction was designed to
allow a through-flow of air. They were used to store
and dry birds, eggs and feathers, harvested crops,
and peat and turf that were both used as fuel.
31
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
The first main deviations from the relatively
primitive St Kildan structures were the building of
the Store (or ‘Featherstore’) before 1818, and the
Church and Manse to plans of 1826. The Store is a
two-storey gabled structure that was used to store
commodities gathered as payment in kind for rent.
The Church is a relatively plain two-bay oblong
structure built to plans of 1826, a schoolroom
being added on the north-west side in 1898. The
Manse was built at the same time as the Church.
In an effort to provide more up-to-date
accommodation, the Rev. Neil MacKenzie
instigated a move from the old village core to a
laid out string of blackhouses, mostly end-on to
what is now known as The Street. These
structures, 24 of which survive fairly intact, were
mainly built in the 1830s, but one example
(Blackhouse E) possibly dates from as late as the
1870s. The blackhouses were of the usual
Hebridean plan, being rectangular, with thick
double-skinned walls and with rounded external
corners. The roofs were thatched with barley
straw, some later gabled, and the windows were
glazed. There was a single entrance, used by both
animals and humans, and the lower end was
normally used as a byre. A plan published by
Thomas in 1870 showed how the living quarters
were laid out. Some examples include a crub or
wall-bed, a feature carried on from the medieval
building tradition. Several variations on the general
plan can be seen, including the recently excavated
kiln-barn (Blackhouse W), and the conjoined
Blackhouses M and N.
The fertile plain of Village Bay was divided into
numerous radial plots, most of which are still
evident through dykes, cultivation lynchets or lines
of stones. The plots were now related to individual
blackhouses whereas previously plots of land were
allocated to families on a rotational system based
on run-rig. The head dyke, into which pre-existing
cleitean and other structures were integrated, was
probably built in the 1830s, as was the high seaward
wall. To the rear of the blackhouses are enclosures
which may define small gardens, and MacKenzie
refers to adjacent manure pits which are no longer
obvious. Small circular gateless enclosures within
the head dyke form ‘planticrues’, used to shelter
growing crops of kail or cabbages. The An Lag
enclosures, the date of which is unknown, might
also have been exclosures where vegetables
would have grown in this relatively sheltered
location without being eaten by the livestock.
32
Later 19th-century Houses
After a damaging hurricane in October 1860, the
opportunity was taken to further improve the living
accommodation in the village. Construction of the
row of 16 new whitehouses strung along The Street
started in 1861.
The 16 houses erected were lime-mortared, gabled
and chimneyed. Of a standard Scottish Highland
three-roomed design, these buildings are quite
different from their predecessors; they face
seaward, not end-on to the Bay, and have a hard
rectangular outline of mortared stone with cementrendered walls, and chimneyed gables. Their roofs
were covered with zinc plates nailed down to
sarking boards as a security against the wind, but
some plates were too short to cover the whole
roof and all were apparently prone to
condensation. The zinc was subsequently replaced
by tarred felt held down by spikes and stays. In
1898 the houses were provided with new floors
which were partly of concrete, and partly timber.
Set into the slope, most of these houses have a
revetted drainage ditch at the rear, a common
mainland technique.
The construction of these houses caused
modifications to the building pattern on the street
frontage, but most new structures appear to have
been fitted into the gaps between the
blackhouses. While most of the blackhouses were
reused as byres or stores, one or two, such as
Blackhouse X, were still used as dwellings after
the construction of the new houses. A good deal is
known, from documentary and photographic
evidence, about the layout and functions within the
houses, and this has been supplemented by the
excavation of Houses 6 and 8 in the late 1980s.
The present Factor’s House was probably also built
in the 1860s. This building was used by the Factor
during his annual visits to collect the rent. It stands
towards the lower end of the street, close to the
Church and Manse. Built on common ground, it is
of a conventional mainland type with one-and-ahalf storeys and a projecting front porch. Marked
on Sharbau’s plan is a structure described as a
‘mill erected in 1861’ although it is not known
whether this was a grain mill which ever had a
working existence.
Early 20th Century to the Evacuation
Scheduled Ancient Monuments
The addition of the schoolroom to the Church
occurred between 1897 and 1900, and fragments
of writing slates found in recent excavations may
date from around that time. The concrete slipway
and jetty were built in 1901, and the naval gun
(brought from a First World War naval gunboat)
and ammunition store were added in 1918 in
response to a German U-boat attack which left the
Store in ruins and other buildings severely
damaged. Excavated finds show that the islanders’
tastes became more developed as tourism brought
in a little extra income and contact with the
outside world; for a while their life remained
comfortable but basic.
Extensive areas of Hirta have been scheduled as
nationally important ancient monuments. The
largest is a tract of the Village Bay medieval and
later settlement, but excluding the structures
associated with the MoD Base. It stretches from
the enclosures at An Lag to the activity area and
the supposed site of St Brianan’s Church at
Ruaival. The cluster of structures and dykes at Geo
Chrubaidh, and the cleitean and possible structure
at Claigeann an Tigh Faire, between Mullach Bi and
Claigeann Mor are also scheduled. In addition, a
large swathe of Gleann Mor has been scheduled,
including the Amazon’s House and associated
‘horned’ structures.
Post-evacuation
Landscape
Following the evacuation in 1930, the buildings of
St Kilda began to deteriorate fairly rapidly, and
within 10 years most were roofless. In 1957 the Air
Ministry re-occupied the Manse and Factor’s
House, repaired the Church, and built a block of
Nissen huts. At about this time the road to the top
of Mullach Mor was built, using material quarried
from the side of the hill. The present MoD
buildings were occupied in 1969, and the radar
facilities on Mullach Mor and Mullach Sgar have
gradually developed over the last 35 years.
For most visitors, the fascination of St Kilda lies in
the combination of spectacular natural phenomena
linked to the almost tangible atmosphere of the
remains of human settlement. The remains of
these buildings, cleitean and walls erected by the
now absent St Kildans, are a very influential feature
of the landscape, providing as they do a physical
link to the existence of the people. They provide
the imagination with an idea of how the St Kildans
might have lived, reliant on the natural resources
of the islands and challenged at every turn by the
isolation and climate of the place.
The remains of several aircraft are to be found on
St Kilda. A Sunderland flying boat and her crew –
six New Zealanders, an Australian and three
Britons – crashed in Gleann Mor in June 1944
while on a night operational flight from Oban.
All crew members died in the crash and the
wreckage was later dismantled and buried by the
RAF in the summer of 1944. A Beaufighter, based
at Port Ellen on Islay, crashed on Conachair on
3 June 1943, also during a night flight. Most of the
wrecked fuselage plunged over the cliffs and no
bodies were ever found. A Wellington Bomber
crashed on Soay at some point during the Second
World War, almost certainly LA995 flying out of
Stornoway on 23 February 1943, carrying six of
a crew.
All of these aircraft are treated as archaeological
remains in the same way as the various wrecks
around the islands, ranging from a supposed
galleon site in Geo Chaimbir, to a trawler in Geo
Chruadalain. Most recently, the Golden Chance
was lost in Village Bay in 1981.
Juxtaposed against these poignant remains are the
Army camp buildings in Village Bay, the masts and
radomes of the radar sites on Mullach Mor and
Mullach Sgar, and the remains of the quarry
opened to extract road building materials. These
provide a startling reminder of the presence and
influence of modern humans on St Kilda and may
appear to some as intrusive and undesirable for
this reason as for their physical appearance.
The most common way of reaching St Kilda is by
boat and the views of the archipelago from a
vessel moving between the stacs or around the
cliffs, will reinforce the dramatic impacts of its
islands. The sheer scale of the islands arouses
many of the emotions which are associated with
their landscape and which give St Kilda its special
‘spirit of place’.
33
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
b. History and Development
34
In her classic book An Isle called Hirte, Mary Harman
(1997) summarises accounts of fowling by the St
Kildans. The gathering of eggs, young and adult
birds naturally depended on the life cycle of the
birds themselves. Adult birds were collected as soon
as they returned to the island in spring – common
guillemots from February to April, adult shearwaters
and northern gannets in March. Adults and eggs of
northern fulmars and Atlantic puffins, and the eggs
of common guillemots, were then harvested, as the
birds were laying in May. Common guillemots could
be harvested twice, with a gap of 18 days, and
sometimes even a third time, as they would usually
lay a replacement egg. Adult Atlantic puffins were
still taken in May, June and July, after which the
fledglings then became available, together with the
young of northern gannets (gugas), shearwaters and
northern fulmars. The northern gannet harvest
necessitated visiting Boreray and its stacks, Stac Lee
was the most difficult to land on and the men
sometimes over-nighted in stone bothies there. The
men often worked in small groups, descending the
highest cliffs in stages using long ropes of hemp or
horsehair. The women and children often helped
deal with the catch at the cliff-top. The lower sections
of cliff were scaled from a boat. Snares made of
horsehair were employed to catch auks, one woman
catching 127 Atlantic puffins in three hours and
another 280 in a day! Nooses attached to long poles
extended the reach of the fowlers, while Atlantic
puffin eggs could be scooped out of burrows easier
with a spoon on the end of a stick. Dogs were also
Finlay MacQueen demonstrates climbing
useful in catching adult Atlantic puffins and
shearwaters, a good one catching 60 or 70 in one
night. Harvests were divided up amongst the
community, the birds being plucked and dried for
the winter; feathers and oil contributed to the rent.
Latterly, some St Kildans sold eggs and stuffed birds
as souvenirs to tourists, Leach’s petrels and St Kilda
wrens being the most valuable, necessitating a law
being passed by the Westminster Parliament in 1904
to protect them.
Figures on just how many seabirds were harvested
are scant and probably unreliable. Martin Martin,
for instance, gives an annual northern gannet
harvest of 22,600 that is unlikely to have been
sustainable over a long period. Similarly estimates
of numbers of Atlantic puffin eggs collected,
calculated from the number of creels removed from
Dun, would have necessitated robbing the burrows
of well over half the current population of Atlantic
puffins. The 19th-century figures are perhaps the
most reliable, but represent the harvests of a
declining human population. During the 1830s, the
northern gannet (including gugas) harvest never
exceeded 4,000, along with 12,000 to 20,000
northern fulmars. In one exceptional day on
Boreray in the 1880s, however, 1,000 northern
gannets were harvested and the incredible figure of
89,600 adult Atlantic puffins has been calculated
for 1876. By the early 1900s the annual average
harvest was of 7,500 northern fulmars and about
5,000-6,000 common guillemot eggs.
History of St Kilda Prior to NTS Acquisition
In 1703 Martin Martin wrote how ‘descriptions of
countries without the natural history of them, are
now justly reckoned to be defective’. He was the
first of many visitors to describe in detail the island
and its inhabitants. It was only by the beginning of
the 20th century that the first scientific studies
began. The first geological survey of St Kilda took
place in 1927-28 (forming the basis for all
subsequent geological work) and, soon afterwards,
the Oxford/Cambridge expedition provided an early
description of the vegetation; they were the last to
record the habits of the house mouse just prior to
its demise. Soay sheep were then introduced to
Hirta in 1932 to become a significant factor in the
subsequent development of plant communities
there, as studied by later botanists.
Since the lives of the islanders were so dependent
upon the seabirds most early visitors, since Martin
Martin’s time, had something to offer on the
avifauna. So it is not surprising that the seabirds
have been so well documented and then
censussed on a regular basis. A detailed checklist
of the all birds was updated in the year 2000. The
presence of a nature reserve warden for six
months every year since 1957 has helped collate
the natural history records, while the staff at the
MoD Base and scientists involved in the long-term
study of the sheep have provided many valuable,
additional observations. Annual reports are lodged
with Scottish Natural Heritage and The National
Trust for Scotland, while many papers have been
generated by the scientific studies, to add to the
prodigious published accounts and books written
by visiting naturalists over the last century or two.
A Landscape of Tradition and Legend
The landscape of St Kilda is littered with
features and places linked with folklore and
legend. These stories are all closely tied to
those of the rest of the Outer Hebrides and
Atlantic seaboard, but some have been adapted
to suit the special circumstances of
St Kilda. Without the plethora of documents
associated with this landscape, these place
names and traditions would have been lost,
and the meanings of the landscape to the
inhabitants would, as in many other places,
have been forgotten forever.
The Mistress Stone
The Mistress Stone was a place where young
men would establish their climbing prowess
before their wedding.
‘In the Face of the Rock, South of the Town, is
the famous Stone, known by the Name of the
Mistress-Stone; it resembles a Door exactly, and
is in the very Front of this Rock, which is
twenty or thirty Fathom perpendicular in
height, the Figure of it being discernible about
the Distance of a Mile: Upon the Lintel of this
Door, every Bachelor-Wooer is, by an ancient
Custom, obliged in Honour to give a Specimen
of his Affection for the Love of his Mistress,
and it is thus: He is to stand on his left Foot,
having the one Half of it over the Rock, he then
draws the right Foot towards the left, and in
this Posture bowing, puts both his Fists further
out to the right Foot; after he has performed
this, he has acquired no small Reputation,
being ever after accounted worthy of the finest
Woman in the World…’
Martin Martin, 1753, A voyage to St Kilda: The
remotest of all the Hebrides or Western Isles of
Scotland (4th ed.; London) p. 61.
Calum Mor’s House
Probably the last surviving dwelling from the
medieval village, the house is said to have been
built in a day by the strong-man Calum Mor in
order for him to prove his manliness.
The Amazon’s House
The ‘House of the Female Warrior’ who once
lived in Gleann Mor. The ‘Amazon’ is said to
have hunted with her hounds at a time when
there was a land bridge between St Kilda and
the Western Isles. The structure may be
hundreds or even thousands of years old.
35
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
St Kilda Parliament
The Parliament was convened almost every
morning, when the menfolk would decide
what, if anything, should be done that day.
The Parliament was part of a communal
system of sharing tasks and resources – one of
the few aspects of life in which St Kilda
appears to have differed significantly from
other parts of the Western Isles.
St Kilda has a very special genius loci – or ‘spirit of
place’ – which casts a spell on all those who visit
it. It is a place of natural superlatives – of high
cliffs, moody weather and teeming bird life. All of
these add to the qualities of St Kilda, but so much
of what is special about the islands is rooted in its
human history. Its built heritage is a testament to a
society that existed in relative isolation for
centuries, and yet was unable to survive in the
20th century. This human history of St Kilda has
been so important in giving the islands the
qualities, both tangible and intangible, which
they possess today.
36
2. St Kilda parliament
The following account is necessarily brief: more
detailed accounts of the history of St Kilda can be
found in the many publications about the islands
(see Bibliography).
The origins of the name St Kilda are uncertain as
there has never been a saint called Kilda. Skildar is
the Old Icelandic word for ‘shield’ that would
describe the shape of the islands as they appear to
rest on the surface of the water. The form
S. Kildar appeared in a book of charts in 1592 and
probably led to the later adoption of the name
St Kilda. An alternative suggestion was related by
Martin Martin, a visitor to the islands in 1697, who
thought that the islands may have been named
after a well (Tobar Childa) near the village on Hirta.
Another and possibly the most likely explanation
comes from a knowledge of the way the St Kildans
themselves pronounced Hirta in their native tongue.
3. Amazon’s House
1. The Mistress Stone
37
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
St Kilda’s Language and Culture
It is perhaps not surprising that so many of the St
Kildan evacuees of 1930 spent their exile craving
return to their homeland and indeed some
continued to return each summer throughout the
1930s until the outbreak of war. The Earl of
Dumfries regarded the islands as a nature reserve
and Neil Gillies, a St Kildan, was employed as a
summer warden. Those evacuees, retained the ‘St
Kildan lisp’, mentioned by Martin Martin as early
as 1697. In effect, this was a mispronunciation of
consonants. L (before a broad vowel) and V both
became W. Similarly R became L. The word
(razorbill) for example – pronounced elsewhere in
the Hebrides as ‘laavy’, became ‘waawy’. The
islanders pronounced the word Hiort (Hirta) as
‘hilt’. As Norman Heathcote mentioned in his
book published in 1900, it is probably that the
name ‘St Kilda’ is a corruption of the already
corrupted ‘hilt’.
Although almost all the placenames of the
archipelago have a Norse derivation, for at least
400 years Gaelic was the language of Hirta. The
following words, unique to the St Kildan
vocabulary, are redolent of the islander's
extraordinary lifestyle: lon – a climbing rope made
of strips of plaited rawhide and regarded as a
precious heirloom; mogais – an anchor,
consisting of heavy stones placed in a seal-skin
sack; sraonadh – slipping off a rock; crathadh –
the usual method of despatching a bird, i.e.
dislocating its neck; faire – literally ‘nightwatch’
(wearing dark clothes but with a white cloth
tucked under the throat, the hunter tricked
razorbills into coming in to roost). Many such
words pertaining to sea-fowling were peculiar to
St Kilda with its seabird economy.
Throughout the islands recorded history,
superstition was widespread. As in other parts of
the Highlands and Islands, it was believed that
sithichean (little people) lived in grassy hillocks,
close to human habitation. The Gruagach, the
benign female spirit that was believed to look
after the cattle, resided within a monolith located
close to the Village. In the remote Gleann Mor,
invalids offered gifts to the spirit residing in Tobair
nam Buadh (the well of virtues) before drinking
what was supposedly the well’s healing waters.
38
Some 300 years ago, Martin Martin reported that
composing songs and bardachd (poetry), and
making up humorous rhymes were favourite
pastimes of both the men and women of St Kilda.
Early in the 19th century, visitors collected songs
that must have been composed at times when
the community felt buoyant and self-confident.
The best known of these are the Bhanais Hiortach
(St Kilda wedding) and Cleite Gadaig (Gadag
Rock), both of which were composed in an age
when mouth-music and dancing were acceptable
expressions of well-being and happiness.
Dancing to music ‘scratched out of a bad fiddle’
was popular at all times of the year. In summer
pony races and shinty matches were held on the
beach of Village Bay.
After the famous evangelist Dr John Macdonald of
Ferintosh (known as ‘The Apostle of the North’)
visited the island, albeit briefly, in 1822 and 1823,
he reported the people steeped in a mixture of
‘pagan belief and Popish superstition’.
Charismatic and persuasive, Macdonald’s
influence over the minds of the islanders was
profound. Following a century without a resident
minister, in 1829 the islanders welcomed into
their midst the Rev. Neil MacKenzie. Under these
Presbyterian influences many of the older
islanders became introspective and consciencestricken, and began to spend more time in prayer
and theological debate than in earning a living. It
is undeniable that MacKenzie worked hard to
improve the material as well as the spiritual plight
of his parishioners, and his account of island life
has become a classic in St Kildan literature.
MacKenzie also left to posterity a collection of
laments and poems popular during his time on
the island – all of them inspired by feelings of
intense grief or piety, or both.
Without a resident spiritual leader, the older
members of the community began to fret and
endlessly debated their future. This sense of
uncertainty and unhappiness persuaded many of
the young to escape their isolation. In 1852 for
instance, 36 of the island’s youngest and ablest
emigrated to Australia. On the voyage to Melbourne,
18 of them perished. When the news of the tragedy
reached St Kilda the people ‘shut themselves up
in their houses and wept for a week’.
On a visit to St Kilda in 1865, the folklorist
Alexander Carmichael was determined to meet
Oighrig NicCruimein (Effie MacCrimmon), an 84
year old famed as a tradition-bearer. The Rev.
Mackay, at that time the incumbent minister, did
all he could to discourage the meeting. ‘You
should be aware’, he declared, ‘that the people of
St Kilda have now discarded songs, music and
dancing and the stories of their foolish past!’
Thankfully, Carmichael persisted and, during his
brief hours in her company, discovered that Oighrig
could recall many of the island’s ancient songs,
stories and traditions.
Included in her treasury was An Comhradh (The
Conversation) which Oighrig’s parents had
composed together during their courtship days in
the late 18th century. The tune of An Comhradh is
robust and inventive although the translation fails
to express the full vigour and vitality of the lyric.
The young man looked forward to the challenge
of hunting gannets on Boreray
1. Oighrig Nic Cruimein- traditional story teller
Away with spade and tools of the soil!
Away with the basin and away with the lamb!
Up with my climbing rope and down my snares!
For I hear the gannet speak in the ocean.
The song is noteworthy, not least in that it
encapsulates the genius and tragedy of the St
Kildans. Sadly, days before Oighrig was born, her
father and grandfather, tied together by their
climbing rope, plunged to their death whilst
fowling on the cliffs at the back of Oiseval.
2. The St Kilda wedding song
39
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Archaeological evidence suggests that Hirta has
been occupied, almost continuously, for well over
2,000 years and that the first human activity began
a further 3,000 or more years beforehand. It is
certain that the Vikings had an influence on the
islands and that Hirta was also occupied by early
Christians. The place names on the islands reflect
both the Norse and Gaelic influence.
The first comprehensive account of life on St Kilda
was provided by Martin Martin (1697), tutor to the
MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan. At this time,
St Kilda was owned by the MacLeods of Harris and
Dunvegan, and would remain with a branch of the
family until the year after the evacuation in 1930.
At the time of Martin’s visit there were
approximately 180 people on Hirta, living in a main
settlement in Village Bay. They kept sheep and
cattle and grew crops – but the most important
component of their diet came from seabirds.
The seabird harvest included the northern gannets
that were so abundant on Boreray and the Stacs
and, in later times, came to depend on the
northern fulmars and Atlantic puffins that nested
on the cliffs of Hirta and Dun. The St Kildans were
consummate and fearless climbers and caught the
birds by either scaling the cliffs from the bottom,
or more usually by lowering themselves down to
the cliff ledges where the birds nested. The bird
life also provided them with oil, feathers and eggs,
which they collected and used as payment in-kind
for their rent.
Ropes and fowling rods were usually the property
of all of the islanders, as were the areas of pasture
and other items such as boats and the numerous
cleitean (drying chambers) which can still be found
densely dotted around the islands. Ropes could,
however, also be owned by individuals and, at
some stage in the history of the islands, they often
formed part of a dowry. At the time of Martin’s
visit, the people of St Kilda led a simple life. They
were guided by basic though at times idiosyncratic
Christian principles with their lifestyle ‘in tune’ with
nature and adapted to the pressures of survival in
such a difficult environment. In later times their
lifestyle was to become strongly influenced by the
Church, through the strenuous efforts of the many
clergy who spent time on the islands.
40
In 1822, St Kilda was visited by the renowned
evangelical preacher, Rev. John Macdonald, the socalled ‘Apostle of the North’. Macdonald set about
constructing the foundations of a highly organised
and puritanical religion on St Kilda. These were
built upon by the Rev. Neil MacKenzie who arrived
on the islands in 1830. He also decided to try to
improve the standard of living of the St Kildans and
under his guidance the traditional ‘run-rig’ system
of agriculture was replaced by a permanent
allocation of land to each family. The old village
was demolished and replaced around 1834 by a
curving line of blackhouses around the curve of
Village Bay. In 1861, MacLeod, the landlord, paid
for a new set of cottages for the St Kildans that
were built by his masons from Dunvegan. These
were erected alongside the 1830’s blackhouses,
many of which were retained as byres. In 1865 the
Rev. John Mackay was sent to St Kilda and set
about imposing a particularly strict religious rule
over the islanders: the St Kildans embraced his
teaching and ignored their own traditions.
Rev. John Mackay- Minister on St Kilda 1866-1889
Another factor in the history of the St Kildans was
the influence of disease on the islanders. The
islands were devastated by a smallpox epidemic in
1724, from which only four adults and 26 children
survived. (A further three men and eight boys
escaped exposure to the disease as a result of
being stranded for several months on Boreray
while on a fowling expedition.) Although some new
families were introduced from Harris and Skye, the
population never again exceeded 110. A further
factor in the decline was infant tetanus, which,
until it was finally eradicated in 1891, exacted a toll
of two out of every three live births. The emigration
of 36 islanders to Australia in 1852 reduced the
population to approximately 70, from which it
never recovered.
By this time, the islanders’ traditional economy had
also begun to falter, with the oil and feathers they
exported losing value on the mainland – though
still accepted by the Factor as part payment of the
rent. From the 1870s, however, steamers were
calling regularly at Village Bay, full of well-meaning,
curious visitors – tourists. They came ashore to
see the inhabitants, whom they regarded as
quaint, and to buy souvenirs made by them.
Money was introduced for the first time and the St
Kildans came to rely on these tourists to provide
them with a source of income. But by the
beginning of the 20th century this fickle and
uncertain source of income began to decline as
St Kilda began to go out of vogue. What followed
were years of hardship when illness, bad weather,
poor harvests and lack of food seriously affected
the quality of life and the expectations of the
St Kildans. They had few sources of income,
although the sale of cattle and tweed to Skye and
the mainland continued through the estate Factor
until after the First World War. Communication with
the mainland was also difficult, with the efficiency
of their post office, which opened in 1899, often
affected by weather conditions.
During the First World War, the islanders
experienced a short reprieve when a Naval unit
stationed on the island brought them a measure of
prosperity as well as radio communication, regular
mail, employment and supplies. However, in 1919
the Navy pulled out and the islanders’ situation
was once again desperate. By 1928 the population
had fallen to 37 and in 1930 the remaining
islanders, guided by Nurse Williamina Barclay,
decided that they had no future on St Kilda. They
signed a petition requesting evacuation, which was
Detail from Sharbau’s map of 1860
sent to the Secretary of State for Scotland in May
1930. Eventually, their request was granted and on
29 August 1930 the 36 remaining St Kildans left
the islands. They were taken by HMS Harebell to
the mainland where the majority was to settle in
Morvern, Argyll, to work for the Forestry Commission
– most having never before seen a tree!
The MacLeods sold the island in 1931 to the Earl
of Dumfries, later to become the 5th Marquess of
Bute. He retained the island, unoccupied and
managed as a bird sanctuary, until his death in
1956, following which the islands came into the
care of The National Trust for Scotland, when it
also became a National Nature Reserve under the
supervision of The Nature Conservancy (now SNH).
41
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
‘Operation Hardrock’, established the need for St
Kilda as an early warning radar outpost during the
Cold War. An MoD Base was established in 1957,
initially by the RAF, and this has gradually evolved
into the MoD Base for the South Uist Rocket
Range. This establishment continues to provide
the island with its most permanent occupants as
well as electricity, running water, medical support,
and lines of supply. In order to cause minimal
disturbance to the Village, the Base was
established on the ‘Glebe Land’ – agricultural land
in the control of the church. Initial plans to
demolish the Village and use the stone for road
building were successfully opposed in 1957 by
representatives of The Nature Conservancy and the
NTS; the Village was spared and the quarry above
Village Bay was established instead. Various radar
facilities have come and gone on the hilltops, but
the most sustained activity of this type is confined
to the area of the Base, now run by the
commercial company QinetiQ.
From 1958 onwards, volunteer ‘Work Parties’ of
The National Trust for Scotland have visited
annually, restoring a number of the historic
buildings for use by visitors, volunteers, and
researchers, as well as maintaining the ruined
structures and assisting with archaeological
excavations.
42
Operation Hardrock 1957
Archaeological Investigations
Archaeological observations on St Kilda began as
early as the 1830s. During his agricultural and
housing improvements, Rev. Neil MacKenzie noted
the presence of:
‘very numerous .... green mounds called ‘gnocan
sithichean’, which were looked upon as abodes of
fairies. These were all removed in the course of
agricultural improvements. They were composed
of stones mixed with a little earth to a depth of
two or three feet. At some distance below this
layer were stone coffins formed in two different
ways…. In a few of them bones were found, and
in nearly all of them pieces of earthen vessels.’
The very first NTS Work Party, in August 1958,
decided to investigate the remains at Gleann Mor
and elsewhere on the islands:
‘Set off with sandwiches up the road to the
Col and down into Gleann Mor with Prof.
O’Dell to examine the bee-hive dwellings.
We took spades and crow-bar with us.
Started work on digging out the floors of the
buildings. The Amazon House is the bestpreserved of the buildings-described in detail
in the Scottish Field, by Ken Williamson.
We dug down carefully in several houses but
came on nothing of interest.’
This and other early Work Parties occasionally felt
the urge to undertake small-scale excavations, but
detailed records of these events, if they ever
existed, are now lost. Work over the past 30 years,
has, however, been undertaken within the modern
rigours of scientific archaeology.
The results of several years of intensive field
survey coupled with documentary research were
published in 1988 by Geoffrey Stell and Mary
Harman in Buildings of St Kilda, and this survey
information continues to provide the base-line
information from which all new work stems.
Partly for logistical reasons, very few archaeological
excavations have so far taken place on St Kilda.
Early efforts related to the souterrain, where
unfortunately the contemporary techniques of
excavation succeeded in destroying some extremely
important information. Houses 15 and 16 were
investigated in the 1970s. More recently, the
excavation of the floor deposits of House 6 in
advance of reconstruction has produced useful
results, as has the examination of House 8,
Blackhouse W, and a rubbish pit behind House 7
and Blackhouse G. The results of these
excavations of 1986-90 were published in 1996 as
the first in a series of monographs on the
archaeology and ethnography of St Kilda.
In 1993 and 1994 Glasgow University undertook
research excavations at Ruaival, on two circular
areas and at An Lag where the ‘boat-shaped’
settings were investigated following an earlier
excavation in 1973. Several areas identified as
being at risk from cliff erosion have been
investigated, especially a ‘boat-shaped’ setting at
The Gap (excavated in 1995) and some field
boundaries at Ruaival.
For the years 1996-2001, the St Kilda Archaeological
Management and Research Plan was implemented.
As part of the work contained in this plan, an
archaeologist has been employed on the islands
during the summer months to carry out condition
surveys and extensive monitoring of the built
structures on the islands. This information is being
used to direct building maintenance work by
helping to determine priorities for repair or
maintenance.
The condition of the grave markers in the graveyard
has slowly been deteriorating and the area has been
the subject of a detailed drawn and photographic
record, to add to the already extensive records of
the islands which have been maintained by the
Trust since its acquisition of St Kilda.
Palaeoenvironmental research by Durham
University has examined pollen and other remains
from a transect through Village Bay, as well as
looking at the evidence for plants grown in the
planticrues, where the use of medicinal plants has
been revealed. Work on the soils at An Lag has
shown that large volumes of soil were imported
into the enclosures to enhance fertility and provide
a good growing medium.
The Universities of Lampeter and Sheffield have a
long-term programme of research into the stone
tool industry which flourished on St Kilda, probably
from the early prehistoric period and through to at
least the Iron Age, or perhaps even to relatively
recent times. Excavations of quarry material have
shown that the landscape above and to the south
of the village has been substantially modified by
human activity.
Since 1995, small-scale excavations have focused
on the screes below Mullach Sgar, in the southwest part of Village Bay. Numerous scree
structures have been rediscovered and recorded,
while, on the terrace below, a ‘horned structure’,
similar to those found across in Gleann Mor, has
been examined and may have prehistoric origins,
as well as activity into the 1st millennium AD.
Nearby, investigations are in progress (2002) of
part of a small but surprisingly complete Iron Age
building, surviving in places almost to roof height.
43
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
c. Form and date of most recent
records of site
St Kilda benefits from having a number of
particularly detailed records of its historic buildings
and archaeological sites. The base-line record was
produced by the Royal Commission on the Ancient
and Historical Monuments of Scotland, consisting
of detailed survey of the Village Bay area, Gleann
Mor, and other principal sites, plus ground and
some elevational/cross-sectional illustrations of
standing buildings and other selected structures.
The RCAHMS survey has more recently been
supplemented by more detailed pieces of work,
including a comprehensive survey of the 1,430 or
so cleitean on the islands by Dr Mary Harman, and
by condition surveys of houses, blackhouses, other
buildings, walls and selected cleitean by Lorna
Johnstone, NTS St Kilda Archaeologist
1996-2000. Most of this information is now in the
public domain, being held in the National
Monuments Record of Scotland.
Two recent books on St Kilda
44
As noted above, more detailed archaeological and
palaeoenvironmental investigations have also take
place recently, the results of an on-going research
partnership between The National Trust for
Scotland and the Universities of Glasgow and
Durham, and also by the Universities of Sheffield
and Wales Aberystwyth and by the University of
Aberdeen. This and other archaeological, historical
and scientific research into the cultural heritage of
St Kilda is promoted and guided by the St Kilda
Archaeological Research Committee; a panel of
invited individuals and representatives from bodies
with an interest in the islands’ heritage.
Present State of Conservation
Almost uniquely on a landscape scale in Scotland,
the continuing conservation aim for St Kilda is
largely to arrest deterioration of historic fabric, and
to ‘fossilise’ the landscape as closely as possible
to its appearance when it first came into the care
of The National Trust for Scotland. Most largescale deviations from this philosophy relate to the
early infrastructural works associated with the
creation of the MoD Base in the late 1950s and
1960s, or to the careful and very sympathetic
restoration works of selected structures for
operational or interpretative reasons.
The current policy for standing fabric is firmly to
maintain the status quo, in an attempt to preserve
the spirit of the place as much as possible. To that
end, the NTS continues to send out annual
conservation Work Parties of volunteers of mixed
skills, who attend to most of the routine repairs
and also to some fairly substantial ones. Since
1996, in partnership with Historic Scotland, the
NTS has employed a seasonal St Kilda
Archaeologist, part of whose task has been to
ensure that adequate records are made of Work
Party repairs, and to guide this work according to
best conservation practice.
1. NNR sign
The St Kilda Archaeologist has also compiled
detailed written and photographic information
regarding the condition of archaeological sites and
historic buildings, and has produced an
Archaeological Action Plan (working draft) which
includes proposals for a prioritised programme of
monitoring and further recording as well as
targeted conservation actions. This working draft is
a key reference document, informing the formal
5-year Management Agreement between the NTS
and Historic Scotland, regarding permitted works
affecting the designated parts of St Kilda (see 4c
below). However, prioritisation of resources has
had to focus on the main settlement in Village Bay
and surrounding areas; outwith this, selected
cleitean have been identified for monitoring and
conservation. The possibly prehistoric structures in
Gleann Mor, are currently being assessed for
appropriate conservation actions.
d. Policies and programmes
related to the presentation
and promotion of the
property
The National Trust for Scotland has a policy of
open access to all its countryside properties, and
this applies to St Kilda – subject to certain
restrictions within the St Kilda bylaws. However,
St Kilda is the most remote inhabited island in
Great Britain and Ireland, and remains surprisingly
difficult to get to due to the ferocity and
unpredictability of the Atlantic Ocean and its
weather systems, and of the microclimate of
the islands themselves. Presentation and
promotion focuses as much on ‘remote access’
as on direct interpretation for those few visitors
(around 1,750 annually) who are lucky enough to
set foot on the islands.
2. The Black Prince anchors in Village Bay
3. Visitors on a guided tour
45
3
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Presentation on the Islands
As the only island on which people are likely to set
foot, presentation is focused on Hirta. SNH’s NNR
sign is positioned near the top of the pier to
provide visitors with basic information, maps and
to direct them to the Warden’s office at the
Factor’s House. The preservation of the Village is
in itself a presentational effort, but the remains are
allowed to speak for themselves, and there is no
open-air interpretation, other than the NNR sign.
House No. 3, however, has been restored to house
a small museum in which a few authentic St Kildan
everyday artefacts are on show, and which
contains a great deal of information, presented on
information panels, about all aspects of the
islands’ natural and cultural heritage. (The museum
displays and interpretative resources are in the
process of being updated and improved.) In
addition, House No. 6 has been restored to the
original room plan and external fittings and
appearance, based on old photographs, oral
history and documentary records.
A large proportion of visitors arrive at Hirta by
cruise ship and therefore have only a few hours to
spend on the island. For their use there is an
archaeological broadsheet for St Kilda, which
includes a map of the main areas and brief
descriptions of the principal features of interest.
This can be supplemented by the numerous
historical and contemporary accounts of the
islands (available in the small shop run on a
voluntary basis on behalf of the St Kilda Club), and
in particular, for the casual visitor, the colour NNR
leaflet and the illustrated popular guidebook by
David Quine (Quine, 2000). In addition, from the
late spring to early autumn months, both the St
Kilda Warden (Natural Heritage) and the St Kilda
Archaeologists take visitors on guided tours of the
Village area and beyond. SNH has produced a
Code of Conduct for visitors which is available to
all cruise ships and boat charters, asking them to
behave responsibly, and advising them of facilities
available on the island. The warden is always on
hand to answer queries and guide visitors around
the important features of the Village. The warden
also accompanies vessels on cruises around
Boreray and the stacks if required.
‘Remote Access’
Because St Kilda is so inaccessible to the majority
of people who have an interest in it and would like
to experience going there, The National Trust for
46
Scotland, with funding from Historic Scotland,
Scottish Natural Heritage and others, has
established a substantial and very well-received
website: www.kilda.org.uk. There are links to these
agencies and to the sheep study for instance,
providing a wide range of information about the
site and the researches. The site has been widely
advertised and has become highly visible to web
search engines, and thereby makes an enormous
amount of information about St Kilda available to a
global audience. Statistics from the site,
established in January 2001, show that hundreds
of people from all over the world visit every week.
The site is designed to give visitors a flavour of all
aspects of the islands – natural history, built
heritage, ethnology, and St Kilda today and its
future. Different levels of information are available,
and there are many links to other sites with
content on St Kilda. A Guestbook records the
reactions of visitors from every continent, and
shows that people are being moved by the site
and are being caught up with the fascination for
the place. The website is under continuous
development, and promises to bring more sights
and sounds to its international audience. Major
future developments include the provision of a
Gaelic language version (the language of the
St Kildans), and the production of a children’s
section in conjunction with the nearest local school
– some 80km (50 miles) away.
St Kilda Explored
The enormous interest in St Kilda was
demonstrated in 1995-1996 when over 700,000
people were recorded to have visited the
‘St Kilda Explored’ exhibition in the
Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow. Research for
the exhibition was used as the basis of the
current St Kilda website.
Promotion of the Site
The results of SNH’s underwater surveys were
brought together into an attractive exhibition that
has toured many parts of Scotland and the Outer
Hebrides. SNH has produced a video for sale that
includes all the highlights of these recent surveys;
versions are available with Gaelic or English
commentaries, together with a series of six free
posters that highlight the marine environment of
the archipelago. More recently a further two free
posters and postcards have been produced that
S i t e
H e r i ta g e
K I L DA
o r l d
W
S T
S i t e
H e r i ta g e
o r l d
W
St Kilda Work Parties are heavily subsidised by the
NTS, with support from Historic Scotland, but
nevertheless cost participants in the region of
£500 (around 750 euros) for the 16-day trip – which
includes food and accommodation but excludes
the cost of travel to and from Oban, the point of
departure from the mainland.
Images: John Baxter, David Donnan, Alistair Davidson, Rohan Holt.
K I L DA
The National Trust for Scotland is acutely aware
of the difficulties people experience in getting to
St Kilda, and helps facilitate access through its
own cruises, and also by providing opportunities
for people from 18 to 75 years old to participate in
active conservation on the islands through the
long-established St Kilda Work Parties. The Trust
also facilitates the St Kilda Club (which exists to
promote the conservation of the islands), and
works in association with cruise ships and with
local boat operators. All access opportunities are
promoted through the Trust’s St Kilda website, but
all means of visiting are inevitably expensive.
S T
celebrate all aspects of the St Kilda WHS
experience. SNH also distributes to local Tourist
Information Offices throughout the Outer Hebrides
its colour, bilingual leaflet about the National
Nature Reserve, and is currently producing a glossy
booklet on the wildlife of St Kilda. They also
recently subsidised the Scottish Ornithologists’
Club to publish the revised Birds of St Kilda by
Stuart Murray, available to members and nonmembers alike. Local SNH staff provide illustrated
lectures to local schools, visitors and community
groups in the Western Isles and provide
background information to a variety of students
undertaking projects about the islands; every few
years SNH-sponsored environmental competitions
to local schools are themed on National Nature
Reserves or St Kilda in particular.
Images: David Connor,Kate Northen, Rohan Holt, Sue Scott, SeaMap. Designed by Mode
‘St Kilda Explored’ exhibit - Kelvingrove Museum, 1995
47
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2
3
Killer whale
Sheep and cottages
Scentless mayweed
Village Bay
Soay ram
Watching northern gannets
Soay cliffs
7
‘
’
St Kilda will be managed as a model of integrated
conservation management, where natural and
historic interests are balanced together.
4
4
5
Management
6
a. Ownership
St Kilda is wholly owned on behalf of the
Scottish nation by the independent Scottish
conservation charity, The National Trust for
Scotland. The Trust has ‘barony title’ to the
foreshore – the area between mean high and
low water marks.
49
4
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
b. Legal Status
Cultural Heritage
Large areas of Hirta are included on the Schedule
of Ancient Monuments (SAM Map), and are
protected under Section 28 of the Ancient
Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Under this Act, anyone found guilty of destroying
or damaging such protected places without lawful
excuse can be liable to a fine or imprisonment or
both. Historic Scotland acts for Scottish Ministers
on the management of the monuments, and
considers and decides upon any proposals that
might affect their preservation or setting.
The cultural landscape of Hirta makes a significant
contribution to the scenic qualities of the area.
Figure 4.1: Map of Hirta showing areas
protected under Section 28 of the Ancient
Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979
50
c. Protective measures and
means of implementing
Cultural Heritage
Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological
Areas Act 1979, it is a criminal offence to alter,
damage or destroy a scheduled ancient monument
without the written consent of Scottish Ministers.
The use of metal detectors also requires
permission. Provision is made for the giving of
grants for the maintenance and management of
ancient monuments within the Act under two
schemes administered by Historic Scotland:
Ancient Monuments Grants, and Management
Agreements.
The day-to-day management of the scheduled
areas is controlled through a 5-year Management
Agreement between Historic Scotland and The
National Trust for Scotland in which conservation
and management activities are agreed and method
statements are appended. Historic Scotland also
monitors the management through regular visits by
Inspectors of Ancient Monuments, Architects and
other professional staff. The HS/NTS Management
Agreement includes the provision of a seasonal St
Kilda Archaeologist, who is based on the islands
during the summer months and who monitors and
advises on all works within and outwith the
scheduled areas. Activities not covered by the
Management Agreement are subject to individual
applications for Scheduled Monument Consent,
and, if consent is granted, works are monitored by
Historic Scotland.
The National Planning Policy Guideline Archaeology
and Planning (NPPG 5) and its associated Planning
Advice Note Archaeology – the Planning Process
and Scheduled Monument Procedures (PAN 42)
were issued by the Scottish Office (now the
Scottish Executive) in 1994. They provide advice to
planning authorities on how to deal with ancient
monuments under the development plan and
development control systems. Local authorities
should have ready access to a professionally
maintained Sites and Monuments Record, and
should take account of the cultural heritage in
Structure Plans, Local Plans and Development
Control. Many monuments that are not scheduled
are deemed to be of national or regional
importance, and are protected through the
planning legislation and individual Council policy.
The impact of development proposals on the
setting of scheduled monuments is not addressed
in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological
Areas Act 1979 and no additional controls result
from World Heritage Site designation, but both are
a material consideration in the planning system.
Section 15(1) (j) of the Town and Country Planning
(General Development Procedure) Scotland Order
1992, as amended by Section (5) of the Town and
Country Planning (General Development
Procedure) (Scotland) (Amendment (No2) Order
1994 requires planning authorities to consult
Scottish Ministers where a development may
affect the site of a scheduled monument or its
setting. With regard to the marine environment,
methodologies for Environmental Impact
Assessment and Strategic Environmental
Assessment would require impact on the World
Heritage Site, including visual impact, to be fully
addressed and mitigated.
The islands are covered by UK and Scottish
planning laws under which Comhairle nan Eilean
Siar has various powers and duties. The Structure
Plan prepared by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar,
approved by the Secretary of State for Scotland in
1988, is the principal strategic planning document.
This includes a variety of relevant policies,
including PD4 relating to the protection,
maintenance and enhancement of the natural and
built environment of the Western Isles, where
particular note will be taken of Scheduled Ancient
Monuments, archaeological sites and Listed
Buildings. A revised Structure Plan was open for
consultation until May 2002; this also seeks to
protect the cultural heritage (Policy SC8) and has
specific policies for Listed Buildings (RM16) and
Archaeological sites (RM18). Policy ED5 relates to
tourism developments, and makes a commitment
towards sustainable tourism. The Council employs
an archaeologist to advise on these matters.
The Finalised Harris Local Plan (2000) contains a
number of specific references to St Kilda. Policy
EN5 indicates that ‘the Comhairle will not permit
development that would have an adverse affect on
any of the international or national environmental
designations afforded to St Kilda. An Environmental
Impact Assessment will be required for any
proposals that may adversely affect St Kilda’.
In addition, Policy EN20 provides for the protection
not only of Scheduled Ancient Monuments, but of
other nationally important remains and their
settings, while policies EN14-18 relate to the
protection of the character and setting of Listed
Buildings and other buildings of significance.
Very little is known about the condition or existence
of historic wrecks around St Kilda, although there
is historical and first-hand evidence that some
wrecks do – or did – exist. Although not commonly
used, such remains could be protected under the
Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 that would afford
them statutory protection. Similarly, wrecks – both
ships and aeroplanes – can be designated under
the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986,
especially if they are formally considered to
be war graves.
The ownership by The National Trust for Scotland
offers other protection to the heritage assets of
the islands. The purposes of the Trust have been
defined in various Acts of Parliament, but the
principal purposes can be summarised in modern
terms as conservation and access. The Trust’s
Conservation Principles declare that ‘Conservation
processes should seek to resolve conflicts, but
where irreconcilable differences between
conservation aims and other aims arise, conservation
will prevail’. (Principle 7). In addition, St Kilda is
held inalienably, which provides a major obstacle
to compulsory purchase and to uncontrolled
activities by third parties. The National Trust
for Scotland has also created formal Bylaws
for St Kilda, which protect the natural and
cultural heritage from a variety of sources of
detrimental activity.
Landscape
The whole St Kilda archipelago has been designated
as a National Scenic Area by Scottish Ministers
and is subject to additional planning control to
conserve its outstanding scenic significance.
Where appropriate, applications covered under
NSA legislation are monitored by the Local
Authority and by Scottish Natural Heritage – the
advisors to Scottish Ministers on landscape
matters in Scotland.
However, NSA designation does not currently offer
an effective means of protecting the cultural
landscape.
51
4
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
d. Agency/agencies with
management authority
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) maintain ultimate
responsibility for the National Nature Reserve, but
from May 2003 largely devolved this function to
the owners, The National Trust for Scotland (NTS)
as an Approved Body. SNH will approve the NTS
Management Plan for the NNR and continue to
monitor the NNR, retaining its statutory role
regarding the SSSI, SPA, NSA, SAC and other
designations. Historic Scotland and the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are also
involved in the consents procedures under the
SSSI/European Regulations and, together with
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, in planning consents
under the NSA, etc. A sub-lease from SNH to the
MoD ensured consultation and co-operation with,
in the past the Royal Artillery, and then DERA who
ran the Range, and now the various contractors
(currently the independent company QinetiQ). In
return the staff at the Base fulfil an informal
monitoring presence on the island during the
winter on behalf of SNH and NTS.
i.
The National Trust for Scotland, Wemyss
House, 28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh
EH2 4ET, Scotland, United Kingdom
The National Trust for Scotland is an
independent charity, established in 1931, the
aims of which were defined in The National
Trust for Scotland Order Confirmation Acts of
Parliament in 1935 and subsequently, including
‘…promoting the permanent preservation for
the benefit of the nation of lands and buildings
in Scotland of historic or national interest or
natural beauty…’
ii. Historic Scotland, Longmore House,
Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH
Scotland, United Kingdom
Historic Scotland is the executive agency
within The Scottish Executive responsible
for administering the laws concerning the
protection and management of the historic
environment, including ancient monuments
(buildings, ruins and archaeological sites).
The legislation concerned for St Kilda is
the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological
Areas Act 1979.
52
iii. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar,
Sandwick Road, Stornoway,
Western Isles HS1 2BW, Scotland,
United Kingdom
Amongst its many other duties, Comhairle nan
Eilean is responsible for Structure and Local
planning, and for development control in the
Western Isles. It also has powers under the
Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas
Act 1979.
iv. Scottish Natural Heritage,
12 Hope Terrace, Edinburgh EH9 2AS,
Scotland, United Kingdom
Scottish Natural Heritage is an agency with
responsibility for administration of the Wildlife
and Countryside Act 1981. It is a statutory
consultee with respect to developments within
National Scenic Areas. It is the competent
authority with respect to Special Areas of
Conservation as explained in Scottish Office
Circular No. 6/1995.
e. Level at which management
is exercised (e.g. on site,
regionally) and name and
address of responsible person
for contact purposes
Overall responsibility for the management of the
islands of St Kilda lies with the NTS Regional
Director for the Highlands and Islands, based in
the Trust’s Inverness Office. Policy management is
the responsibility of the Strategic Management
Group, which includes NTS, SNH, HS, MoD and
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and is chaired by the
NTS’ Regional Conservation Manager for the
Highlands and Islands Region. Operational
management is the function of the Operational
Management Group, chaired by NTS’ Area
Manager for the Western Isles. Day-to-day
management is the responsibility of the
NTS Western Isles Area Manager, Scotland,
email: [email protected].
The imposing cliffs of Boreray
The principal point of contact on St Kilda is the
NTS Warden (Seasonal). The Warden is responsible
for visitor management and has other duties
concerned with nature conservation. The NTS
St Kilda Archaeologist (Seasonal) helps ensure that
the historic environment is monitored and that
proposed changes conform to best conservation
practice and to appropriate legislation.
Also Scottish Natural Heritage, Stilligarry,
Isle of South Uist HS8 5RS. (Phone 01870 620238;
Fax 01870 620350). As the Goverment’s advisors
on conservation, this office continues to monitor,
implement and advise upon natural heritage/
conservation/ landscape matters through statutory
procedures and European regulations. It also
supervises NTS management of the National
Nature Reserve.
53
4
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
f. Agreed plans related to
property (e.g. regional, local
plan, conservation plan,
tourism development plan)
As indicated above, the Western Isles Structure
Plan, both in current and revised draft form, makes
provision for the protection of archaeological sites
and historic buildings of significance. These
provisions are reinforced by the Finalised Harris
Local Plan, showing the commitment of the local
authority to the conservation of the special
qualities of places like St Kilda.
The Corporate Plan 1999-2004 of The National
Trust for Scotland reinforces the statutory
purposes of the Trust, all of which are relevant to
the Trust’s care of St Kilda:
• to ensure the conservation, through ownership
or other means, of nationally important land,
buildings and contents;
• to enable people to visit and enjoy the Trust’s
properties, to see and experience them in ways
which are consistent with their conservation;
• to influence and persuade others by example to
share and support the Trust’s aims and work.
The NTS Conservation Principles now apply to all
of the Trust’s properties, and aspire towards best
practice for the conservation of the natural and
cultural heritage. Amongst other things, the
Principles suggest that: conservation decisions
should be based on a systematic approach to
evaluation of significance based on thorough
knowledge and understanding; and that
conservation should take into consideration all
aspects of significance, both tangible and
intangible.
The St Kilda Management Plan, a joint document
produced by the NTS on behalf of those bodies
with a direct responsibility for the management of
St Kilda and which SNH approves as a working
document for the National Nature Reserve, is
described in 4j.
The marine SAC management scheme is a joint
document that will be produced by a group of
relevant and competent authorities to ensure the
maintenance of favourable conservation status of
the marine features of the marine SAC.
54
g. Sources and levels of finance
Funding for the NTS management operations on St
Kilda comes from a variety of sources. The core
funding is from an NTS St Kilda Fund, which
recently has been topped-up from the Trust’s
Islands Fund. This covers the funding shortfall for
the Trust’s operations. The shortfall is reduced
through various grants and donations.
Funding for the Warden’s post comes from SNH,
while 50% of the cost of the St Kilda Archaeologist
is funded by Historic Scotland under a 5-year
Management Agreement, which also covers 50%
of the deficit of running the St Kilda Work Parties
(building conservation). SNH has contributed
considerable funding to scientific survey to date
and will continue to do so as appropriate. In
addition, together with NTS, SNH also sponsor and
encourage the Soay sheep research. Both SNH
and Historic Scotland have also contributed
towards the cost of creating and maintaining the
St Kilda website, and to a variety of other activities
on St Kilda.
The St Kilda Club primarily exists to raise funds on
behalf of the NTS for the benefit of St Kilda. The
Club regularly makes substantial annual donations.
Other charities also contribute towards the Trust’s
work on St Kilda, such as Scottish Heritage USA,
the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Peter
Stormonth Darling Charitable Trust, the Seven
Pillars of Wisdom Charitable Trust, and individual
donors. Such donations are often given towards
specific projects, such as the website, the
upgrading of the museum, and particularly the
archaeological excavations that have occurred
almost every year since the mid-1980s.
The Street, Hirta
h. Sources of expertise and
training in conservation and
management techniques
Cultural Heritage
The St Kilda Archaeologist is a qualified and
experienced archaeologist, with proven skills in
archaeological fieldwork and abilities in interpreting
the historic environment. Training is given in first
aid and usually also boat handling, and further
training in drystone dyking techniques, and in the
use of lime mortar in building repairs is also
usually given. Professional guidance is given by the
NTS Highlands and Islands Region Archaeologist, a
qualified and experienced archaeologist with wideranging expertise. An agreed programme of
continuing professional development is provided.
Advice may also be given by the Trust’s Senior
Archaeologist, based at Head Office in Edinburgh.
As the head of a conservation discipline, this
person will be a highly experienced archaeologist
of national standing.
The St Kilda Archaeologist also benefits from the
input of the NTS Highlands and Islands Region
Building Surveyor, who is a qualified surveyor with
extensive experience in the conservation of historic
structures. The Regional Building Surveyor is
responsible for managing the maintenance and
repair of the historic buildings of St Kilda, and may
call upon the advice of the Trust’s Senior Buildings
Advisor based in Edinburgh.
Archaeological and historic buildings conservation
advice and guidance is also available from the
Historic Scotland Inspector of Ancient Monuments
and District Architect for the area. Further advice is
available from Historic Scotland’s regional
Monument Conservation Unit, and from the
Technical Conservation, Research and Education
Division of Historic Scotland based in Edinburgh.
The St Kilda Archaeologist also benefits from the
advice of the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s
Archaeologist, and of the Historic Scotland Field
Monuments Warden for the area. Further advice is
available from the NTS Regional Countryside
Manager and Regional Conservation Manager.
i. Visitor facilities and statistics
There are two main categories of visitor: those
staying overnight on the islands and casual visitors
from charter boats, yachts and cruise ships. The
main difference is that those staying overnight on
the islands – NTS Work Party members, campers,
researchers, workers (generally employed by or
contracted to MoD/QinetiQ) on the MoD Base –
are permitted to use various accommodation
facilities and in particular may use the ‘ablutions
block’ which houses toilets and showers. Camping
for up to six people is permitted by The National
Trust for Scotland by prior arrangement. The
restriction in numbers is because of limited water
supply in dry summers and the restricted washing
and toilet facilities available.
Other visitor facilities on the island consist of: the
Museum (House No. 3) that has displays about the
natural heritage of the islands; the reconstructed
house (House 6); a shop run by the St Kilda Club
selling souvenirs, books, postcards, etc., and the
‘Puff Inn’ bar run by MoD/QinetiQ staff. In addition,
there is a small orientation point at the pier with an
NNR sign that explains a little about the island, and
the two members of conservation staff are often
able to give guided walks to visitors. Visitors from
cruise ships and small boats often have their own
guide – generally taking advantage of the St Kilda
Archaeological Broadsheet and other publications.
A colour bilingual (English and Gaelic) National
Nature Reserve leaflet has been produced by SNH
and is available free to all visitors. SNH have also
produced various posters, postcards and videos
about St Kilda, especially its marine interest.
55
4
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Every year a seasonal warden is resident on Hirta
from April to September inclusive. All visitors are
asked to report to the warden on arrival. A guided
tour of the Village area is offered to all visitors and
if walkers wish to wander beyond that they are
requested, for health and safety reasons, not to do
so alone. Visitors are requested to consult the
warden before landing on any of the other islands.
The warden will often accompany vessels on a
cruise around Boreray and the stacks, which offers
an awe-inspiring experience around the towering
sea stacks and impressive seabird colonies. There
is no tourist accommodation on Hirta other than
the small campsite; so most visitors stay on board
their vessel anchored in Village Bay overnight.
Visitor statistics have been collected by the St Kilda
Warden for over 15 years:
Virtually all visitors arrive between April and
September. An analysis of visitors was made for
the period 1986-1997 with 74% being ‘general
visitors’, 11% being divers, 6% NTS/SNH work
parties and staff, 5% the crew of MoD vessels,
and 3% school groups. The doubling in visitor
numbers between 1986 and 1997 is due almost
entirely to a slight increase in cruise vessels
(normally carrying around 100 passengers) and the
more erratic visits by one large cruise ship in
particular with up to 350 passengers. These
visitors are only landed for a day trip ashore and
are supervised by the warden.
The NTS maintain a popular and comprehensive
website about St Kilda with links to the NTS, SNH,
JNCC, the Soay Sheep Research Project, etc.
Although it is probably too early to provide
accurate figures, the average number of discrete
visits to the St Kilda website numbers several
hundred per week – some visitors remaining in the
site for an hour or more.
Figue 4.2: St Kilda: Visitor Trends
St Kilda Visitor Numbers 1986-2001
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
1986
56
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
Year
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
4. For cultural heritage interests, conservation
action will proceed on the basis of minimum
intervention required to retain the significance
of the site.
5. The sheep on St Kilda will continue to be
treated as wild and unmanaged animals.
6. For the marine natural heritage, the same level
of protection as that on land will be sought.
7. New developments will only proceed if judged
to have minimal detrimental effect on the site.
A cruise around the cliffs
j. Site Management Plan and
statement of objectives
St Kilda is already a World Heritage Site on
account of its terrestrial natural heritage, and in
addition is a National Nature Reserve: both of
these designations include a commitment to
produce and maintain a Site Management Plan,
and both Scottish Natural Heritage and The
National Trust for Scotland have had and continue
to have an active Site Management Plan for St
Kilda. The 1996-2001 St Kilda Management Plan
recently expired, and is being replaced by a 20022007 Plan (Annexed to formal Revised Nomination
Document submitted to the World Heritage
Committee, and available for comment from:
The National Trust for Scotland, Wemyss House,
28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4ET, Scotland,
United Kingdom. It is hoped to make the
Management Plan available electronically through
the Trust’s St Kilda website www.kilda.org.uk.
8. Scientific research that improves the
understanding of the property in order to guide
its management will be encouraged.
9. Education and interpretation programmes will
instil a long-lasting appreciation for the qualities
of this unique site and for the importance of
sustainable conservation on St Kilda and
across the globe.
10. Access for visitors, whether in person or
through interpretative materials will continue to
be provided.
The most relevant guiding principles of management
are as follows:
1. St Kilda will be managed as a model of
integrated conservation management, where
natural and cultural interests are considered
together.
2. The principal land-use of the islands will be
conservation.
3. For natural heritage interests, natural processes
will normally be allowed to continue without
intervention.
57
4
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Objectives and prescriptions will address
immediate management priorities to deliver:
1. Extension of World Heritage Site status to
include the marine environment and cultural
landscape.
2. A framework to involve partner organisations in
supporting the integrated conservation
management of the property.
3. Enhanced staffing and financial resources to
meet the operational needs and vision for the
property.
In addition, there will be a focus on continuous
improvement of conservation management as
well as the provision of access and benefit, to
achieve the following outcomes:
4. Continued conservation of historic and natural
features to maintain them in favourable
condition, ensuring no loss or damage to
significant features.
5. Acting to mitigate threats to key features.
6. Enhanced knowledge and understanding of the
islands and their cultural and natural features,
and greater promulgation of the research
results to share knowledge and understanding.
7. Continued provision of informed, responsible,
virtual and enjoyable access.
8. Establishment of education and interpretation
programmes that promote a greater
understanding both of St Kilda and of
sustainable conservation management
amongst visitors and non-visitors, particularly
the establishment of interpretation facilities on
the Western Isles.
9. Regular liaison with the local Western Isles
community to understand each other’s
aspirations for St Kilda.
10. Assessment of options for increasing the
property endowment.
58
k. Staffing levels (professional,
technical, maintenance)
Two members of staff are currently based on
St Kilda during the summer months. The St Kilda
Warden spends around six months per annum on
Hirta, involved in visitor management and some
nature conservation duties. The St Kilda
Archaeologist spends over four months a year on
the islands, with duties ranging from monitoring
monument condition, supervising archaeological
fieldwork, monitoring conservation work of Work
Parties, and informing visitors about the cultural
heritage of the islands. These staff are managed
by the NTS Western Isles Area Manager based
on Benbecula.
St Kilda Work Parties are administered through the
well-proven NTS Thistle Camp mechanism, with
significant input from the NTS Western Isles Area
Manager. An Inverness-based Regional Building
Surveyor ensures that the buildings of St Kilda are
maintained in favourable condition. Similarly, the
Inverness-based NTS Regional Archaeologist has
an over-arching responsibility for devising
management and maintenance systems, and
ensuring quality control appropriate to the level of
significance of the remains. Backup from NTS
Head Office staff and from Historic Scotland staff
is described in 4h above.
Stac Lee
59
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2
3
Boreray
Roseroot and sea pink
Diver
Sea anemone
Fieldmouse
Headstones
Black-legged kittiwake
7
‘
’
Other than frequent and often ferocious storms,
large-scale natural disasters are unlikely on
St Kilda.
4
5
5
Factors Affecting the Site
a. Development Pressure
(e.g. encroachment, adaptation,
agriculture, mining)
St Kilda is not deemed under any development
threat. The MoD Base was already underway
when the property was acquired by NTS and
the NNR declared by the Nature Conservancy
(the government grant-in-aid body that is now
Scottish Natural Heritage). Since then the
development of the Base and its facilities has
6
been subject to rigorous scrutiny and control
in keeping with the international status of the
property. Co-operation between MoD, NTS
and SNH has been excellent, manifested in a
regular tri-partite annual meeting to discuss
management. An Annual Operational Plan will
be agreed between NTS, SNH, HS and
MoD/QinetiQ which will be discussed and
agreed annually to be implemented with
regular liaison at a local level. Local SNH staff
and NTS staff from the mainland liaise with
the Range staff on a routine basis.
61
5
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Developments on St Kilda are carefully controlled
by The National Trust for Scotland and by the
statutory agencies. Almost all development relates
to the use of the MoD Base (which largely lies
outwith the scheduled area). Apart from a longterm strategy of providing protective cladding to
the ageing buildings on the Base, no new
developments of any significance are being
proposed. Beyond the Base, the restoration
programme for historic structures has now been
completed, and the only additional building which
may be considered for reconstruction in the near
future would be a blackhouse adjacent to House 6,
which would become part of the interpretative
reconstruction of an early 20th-century domestic
unit. There are no foreseeable changes to the
current land-use beyond the base: no agricultural
or other organised activity occurs on any of the
islands other than that associated with the artillerytracking facility.
Archaeological deposits on the islands are arguably
under pressure from the work of archaeological
researchers. This work is, however, very closely
monitored, and invasive research is only permitted
following scrutiny by the St Kilda Archaeological
Research Committee, and with the appropriate
consents from Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural
Heritage, Scottish Environment Protection Agency
and The National Trust for Scotland.
b. Environmental pressures (e.g.
pollution, climate change)
Natural Heritage
The main potential threat is the accidental
reintroduction of alien species, both plants and
animals. Fortunately the number of human visitors
per year is small so the opportunities for other
invading plants and animals to arrive is minimal.
Landing by visitors on the islands and stacks other
than Hirta is strictly controlled (for reasons of both
accidental introduction of new plant seeds or small
animals and for Health and Safety reasons). The
warden on Hirta monitors arrivals during the visitor
season in summer. No vessel is allowed to tie up
alongside the small pier (which is barely suitable
anyway) and all visitors by boat decant into small
tenders to come ashore at the steps on the pier.
Landings are rarely possible anywhere else.
Supplies for the base arrive either by helicopter, or
by landing craft. The vessels are screened for rats
and other undesirable species and the warden is
equipped with cage traps, etc. in the event of any
mammals getting ashore. There is a very low risk
of non-native marine species being introduced,
either through ship ballast or as fouling organisms
falling off the hull of visiting vessels. No dogs are
allowed on the island to minimise disturbance to
nesting birds and sheep, and to prevent the
accidental introduction of sheep parasites.
Cleitean above the head dyke
62
Excavation at The Gap
Cultural Heritage
Most of the standing structures and archaeological
sites are under no particular threat from
environmental conditions, other than their everyday
exposure to the sometimes ferocious elements on
St Kilda. A very small number of sites are under
threat from coastal erosion, which is likely to
become worse if there is an increase in storminess
linked to global climate change. Of particular note,
and under regular monitoring, is the landfall at
Village Bay, where archaeological deposits from as
early as the Neolithic period (perhaps 5,000+ years
ago) are eroding from the cliff face, while the Store
is just over a metre from the start of the beach.
The site of a ‘boat-shaped setting’ at The Gap was
recently excavated in advance of further cliff-falls
in the area, and the remaining structural elements
are expected to succumb to cliff-fall at some time
in the next few decades.
c. Natural disasters and
preparedness (earthquakes,
floods, fires, etc.)
Other than frequent and often ferocious storms,
large-scale natural disasters are unlikely on St Kilda.
Coastal erosion through storms has recently
increased, and the Store is now under threat of
being undermined. Research is currently underway
to consider whether the Store can be saved
without compromising the other heritage values
of Village Bay.
Storms have regularly caused damage to the roofs
of the historic structures in Village Bay, but their
repair is seen as being part of a regular process
of maintenance, rather than a response to a
natural disaster.
Because there are no rabbits, moles or other
burrowing mammals on St Kilda, and of the
burrowing birds the Atlantic puffins do not
colonise known archaeological sites, although the
petrels do, animal-related threats are minimal,
although some conservation work does get
hampered by the presence of nesting birds –
especially northern fulmars. The lack of trees on
the islands also eliminates a common threat to
archaeology, but bracken rhizomes in the Village
are thought to be damaging – causing
‘bioturbation’ of stratified archaeological deposits.
Recent research has suggested the expansion of
bracken in this area, and action is programmed to
assess the damage being done.
63
5
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
d. Visitor/tourism pressure
The remoteness, expense of transport, lack of
landing facilities, limited accommodation and toilet
facilities, water shortages in summer and the total
unpredictability of the weather all conspire to
impose a limit on visitor numbers. Less than two
thousand visit annually, mostly from yachts, charter
vessels and a few larger cruise ships. Helicopters,
which might offer highly disruptive and dangerous
landing opportunities on the other islands and
stacks of the archipelago, are prohibited. There is a
helipad on Hirta for the regular re-supply
helicopters and for emergencies but the only
permissible flight path is directly into Village Bay
from the sea and out again. Low-flying aircraft over
the island are discouraged and minimal and,
because of the high possibility of bird-strike, not
without considerable risk.
Most visitors come for the St Kilda experience, to
enjoy its dramatic scenery, its extraordinary history,
and its wonderful wildlife. Divers charter vessels to
experience the exciting undersea world around St
Kilda’s shores but other recreational activities, such
as rock climbing, are discouraged. Disturbance to
nesting seabirds and damage to the geology and
vegetation of the sea cliffs could result, not to
mention the extreme difficulties of executing any
cliff rescue. The warden, armed with the bylaws, is
an effective ‘policing’ presence and visitor access
is difficult and minimal in the winter months.
64
The ambience and fragility of the grass-covered
street in the Village could be spoilt by excessive
visitor numbers, but the inaccessibility of the place
prevents large number of people from being able
to visit and acts as a regulator to visitor pressure.
There is no runway on the islands, and helicopter
access is almost entirely restricted to official
flights; even these can be hampered for days or
even weeks at a time by weather conditions –
especially high winds, and mist formed by the
island's microclimate. The vast majority of visitors
must therefore gain access by the sea – either on
cruise ships, day-trip boats, yachts, or sea-going
canoes. All access by sea is subject to suitable
weather conditions, and the tiny pier is not capable
of taking vessels much larger than inflatable
dinghies. Even if boats manage to get to Village
Bay, the often rough conditions may well prevent
their passengers from landing. It is therefore not
anticipated that visitor numbers will increase
significantly over the next few years, in which case
the current level of pressure is not considered to
be particularly damaging to significant features of
the cultural heritage.
e. Number of inhabitants within
site
The Army Base has the capacity to accommodate
up to 30 personnel. Currently the Base is
maintained by a minimum of 12 civilian staff
who work a rota of time on and off the island,
but can reach full complement for short periods
with visiting contractors, official visitors, etc. There
are no permanent full-time inhabitants of any of
the island. Up to 15 sheep researchers can be on
the island during the height of their season, and
during summer there is a seasonal Warden and
the St Kilda Archaeologist.
The cleit at ‘the end of the world’
65
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2
3
Thistles
Sea stacs
Sunrise
Great skua
Starfish
Soay lamb
Jewel anemone
7
‘
’
Because of the way the site is managed, the state
of conservation is very closely monitored.
4
6
5
Monitoring
a. Key indicators for measuring
state of conservation
The warden monitors visitors and activities
while collating natural history records.
He/she undertakes periodic counts of birds
and sheep while the universities co-operating
on the sheep study undertake an annual
census of the sheep on Hirta. Whenever the
opportunity arises the warden will attempt
sheep counts on Soay and Boreray, although
numbers fluctuate from year to year no
significant trend has yet been detected.
6
A census of all seabirds on the archipelago
takes place every 15 years (every 10 years for
northern gannets) and the warden monitors
breeding success of certain species such as
black-legged kittiwakes, northern fulmars and
skuas each summer. In addition, the JNCC
monitored northern fulmar, common guillemot
and razorbill numbers in selected plots in
1990, 1993, 1996 and 1999. Scottish Natural
Heritage has annually monitored breeding
productivity of northern fulmars (since 1989)
and of black-legged kittiwakes (since 1986)
while CEH analyse northern gannet eggs at
regular intervals, for the presence of
pesticides and other chemical pollutants.
67
6
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Within the St Kilda candidiate marine Special Area
of Conservation, monitoring/surveillance of specific
marine features will be carried out over a rolling
six-year programme. The features for which the
marine SAC has been identified are characteristic
rocky reef habitats associated with vertical rock
walls, overhangs, ledges and surge gullies. Also
included are the numerous submerged and
partially submerged sea caves. The broad scale
surveys carried out by SNH in 1997 and 2000
provide a comprehensive and extensive baseline
showing seabed topography and character and will
guide more detailed monitoring efforts in the
future. This will include the use of video
documentation obtained from remotely operated
vehicles or drop down equipment deployed at deep
water sites and scuba diver observation where it is
considered appropriate to do so. At the same time
when monitoring the marine SAC features other
habitats, not included within the SAC designation
(due to their omission from the Habitats Directive
Annex 1), such as the deep sublittoral sediment
areas will be monitored also.
All actions on the islands which have the potential
to disturb archaeological levels or historic buildings
are carried out under archaeological supervision,
having first selected a strategy of works designed
to cause least damage. Cables, for instance, are
normally laid on the surface rather than being
dug into the ground. Summaries of all works
that have required the attention of an archaeologist
are contained in the St Kilda Archaeologist’s
Annual Report.
Because of the way the site is managed, the
conservation is very closely monitored. The first
job each season is to examine the features in and
around Village Bay and report any collapses of built
historic structures – including drystone walls and
enclosures, as well as damage to mortared
buildings. This ensures that immediate
conservation work can be agreed with Historic
Scotland. In addition, the working draft of the
Archaeological Action Plan details the monitoring
work that is required on a cyclical basis, for
example the Gleann Mor structures. The very large
number of historic features on Hirta, and the
inaccessability of the other islands of the
archipelago, has necessitated a prioritised
monitoring regime, based on the significance of
each feature or group of features. For example,
around 300 of the 1270+ cleitean on Hirta have
been selected for regular monitoring.
Details of all archaeological excavations or of other
pieces of research that affect the physical remains
are summarised within a few months of fieldwork,
and summary reports are disseminated to
appropriate archaeological resource managers and
to local and national archives. A short summary of
the year’s fieldwork activities is published annually
in the archaeological journal Discovery and
Excavation in Scotland.
Monitoring information is recorded on a database
and photographically. Depending on available
resources, appropriate actions are prescribed to
prevent the deterioration of built structures and to
repair those which have suffered damage since the
last monitoring period. Details of monitoring actions,
and of conservation actions, are added to The
National Trust for Scotland Sites and Monuments
Record database where they form a permanent,
easily accessed record.
68
The Work Party Leader reports on those
conservation activities carried out by voluntary
Work Parties shortly after returning from St Kilda.
Leaders’ reports are summarised by NTS staff, and
a report is published in the annual St Kilda Mail
(the publication of the St Kilda Club), and a verbal
report is given to the Annual General Meeting of
the St Kilda Club. The report is also submitted to
Historic Scotland for scrutiny, and the works are
discussed at the annual ‘Tripartite’ meeting
between the NTS, Scottish Natural Heritage, the
Ministry of Defence, and Historic Scotland.
The Historic Scotland Field Monument Warden
aims to visit St Kilda every three-five years in order
to report on the state of upstanding and buried
archaeological features within the areas
designated as scheduled ancient monuments;
it is planned to devolve some of this recording to
the St Kilda Archaeologist. The Field Monument
Warden contributes towards a database of
information relating to the state of preservation of
the Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
b. Administrative arrangements
for monitoring property
The St Kilda Archaeologist produces an Annual
Report of activities, including all activities
associated with the historic fabric of the islands.
This report is submitted to Historic Scotland for
scrutiny in accordance with the Trust’s obligations
under the Management Agreement with Historic
Scotland related to conservation works on
scheduled areas. The St Kilda Archaeologist also
produces more specific reports relating to
monitoring and recording projects.
Representatives of Historic Scotland visit St Kilda
at least once a year to examine work carried out
the previous year and to discuss the programme of
conservation and other works being proposed for
the coming season. That meeting is attended by
NTS Regional conservation staff, who are
responsible for fulfilling the Trust’s obligations
under the Historic Scotland Management
Agreement, but who also have a responsibility for
the whole historic landscape – large tracts of
which are not covered by the scheduling.
The St Kilda warden/ranger submits monthly
reports to NTS and SNH and an annual report to
the Tri-partite Committee. SNH logs all Natura/
SSSI/NSA casework.
Dun Gap - Village Bay
c. Results of previous reporting
exercises
National Trust for Scotland Work Parties have been
involved in the active conservation of the built
structures and archaeology of St Kilda since 1958,
and from 1963 have produced sporadic reports
outlining the nature of the work done by the
Parties. Recording became more formalised
towards the end of the 1980s, and in the past
decade the summaries have been completed
without fail. A new initiative has been the
compilation of conservation records relating to
individual buildings or features, as opposed to
chronologically-ordered exercises. These reports
are now being compiled and kept up to date,
enabling an at-a-glance appraisal of the degree of
reconstruction or restoration undertaken on each
feature over many years. The very severe weather
conditions on St Kilda have taken their toll on most
standing structures, and much rebuilding of fallen
drystone walling, and repointing of mortared
structures has occurred. Nevertheless, this work
has taken place under the guidance of the best
conservation practice of the time, which has
meant that rather than now being a series of highly
ruinous shells and piles of stones, the essential
character and integrity of the structures has been
retained as far as possible.
69
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2
3
Northern fulmar
Winter
Cleitean
Sea anemone
Minke whale
Boreray- north coast
Levenish at sunset
7
‘
... they are kind and hospitable in the highest
degree; observe the most scrupulous regard for
truth; and are obliging and attentive to strangers
to a most pleasing extent. They are celebrated for
the goodness of their singing and their cheeses...
from: Expeditions to the Hebrides by George Clayton Atkinson, 1831
4
’
5
7
Documentation
6
71
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
a. Photographs, slides and,
where available, film/video
Extensive documentary, photographic records and
videos, together with collections of archaeological
finds and other artefacts are available from a
number of sources (see 4d below).
b. Copies of site management
plans and extracts from other
plans relevant to the site
The 2002-2007 St Kilda NNR Management Plan is
in a separate document, submitted with this
revised nomination.
A representative selection of photographic slides
and video are included with this submission.
A rare picture inside the schoolroom
72
c. Selected Bibliography
Abraham, D.A. and Ritchie, J.D. 1991 ‘The Darwin
complex, a Tertiary igneous centre in the Northern
Rockall Trough’ Scottish Journal of Geology, 27,
113–125
Acland, A. 1981 A Devon Family: The Story of the
Aclands, Phillimore & Co, Chichester
Admiralty 1865 Chart 2474 Hebrides or Western
Isles from Barra Head to Scarpa Island, and
subsequent editions
Admiralty 1911 Chart 1144 Plans in the Hebrides
and subsequent editions
Admiralty 1934 West Coast of Scotland Pilot
London (8th edition.)
Allen, J. 1880 ‘Notes on wooden tumbler locks’
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, 14, (1879–80), 149–162
Ancrum, M. 1985 Nomination of St Kilda for
inclusion in the World Heritage List, Edinburgh
Anderson, A. 1957 ‘A census of Fulmars on Hirta,
July, 1956’ Scottish Naturalist, 69, 113–116
Anderson, A. 1962 ‘A count of fulmars on Hirta,
St Kilda, in July 1961’ Scottish Naturalist, 70, 120–125
Anderson, I.F. 1937 Across Hebridean Seas London
Anderson, J. 1875 ‘Notes on the relics of the
Viking period of the Northmen in Scotland,
illustrated by specimens in the Museum’
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, 10 (1872–4), 536–594
Anderson, P.J. 1917 A concise bibliography of the
printed and ms. Material on the history, topography
and institutions of the burgh, parish and shire of
Inverness (10. Other Parishes: Harris, St Kilda,
172–176) Aberdeen
Andrew, K.M. 1970 ‘Kingdom of the Birds’ Scots
Magazine, August, 414–423
Anon. c.1594 ‘A short Description of the Western
Isles of Scotland, lying in the Deucalidon Sea,
being above 300. Also the Isles of Orknay and
Shetland or Hethland’ printed as part of Certain
Matters concerning the Realme of Scotland
composed together London.
Anon. 1595 ‘The Description of the Isles of
Scotland’ (probably 1577–95) printed as appendix
to Skene, W.F. Celtic Scotland, 1880-3, 428–440
Anon. 1732 Description at St Kilda The most
western Isle of Scotland, giving an account of its
situation, extent, soil, product, bay, and adjacent
island of rocks Register of the Great Seal of
Scotland Ms. 914.117, Edinburgh
Anon. 1751 A Voyage to Scotland, the Orkneys and
the Western Isles of Scotland, C. Corbet, London
Anon. 1822 ‘Gaelic School Reports’ Annual Reports
of the Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools, 11,
1822
Anon. 1823 ‘Gaelic School Reports’ Annual Reports
of the Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools, 12,
1823
Anon. 1824 ‘Gaelic School Reports’ Annual Reports
of the Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools, 13,
1824
Anon. 1825 ‘Gaelic School Reports’ Annual Reports
of the Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools, 14,
1825
Anon. 1826 ‘Gaelic School Reports’ Annual Reports
of the Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools, 15,
1826
Anon. 1846 ‘The story of Lady Grange’ Chambers
Edinburgh Journal, 114, March 7, 45–148
Anon. 1898 ‘St Kilda, a rock in the British Atlantic’
Eclectic Magazine, 131, New York, 87
Anon. 1906 Holiday Tours to the Western Highlands
and Islands, Including the Romantic Island of St
Kilda Glasgow
Anon. 1913 ‘Ascent of Stack na Biorrach, St Kilda’
Alpine Journal, 27, 195–202
Anon. 1926 ‘St Kilda’ British Medical Journal, 2,
80–81
Anon. 1957 ‘An expedition to Hirta’ Scottish Field,
October 1957
Anon. 1957 ‘Animals and humans at St Kilda’
Discovery, August, 344–348
Anon. 1973 ‘Childhood days on St Kilda’ Gairloch
(reprint of Cameron, articles in Oban Times, 1969)
73
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Armstrong, Rev. E.A. 1953 ‘The history, behaviour
and breeding-biology of the St Kilda Wren’ Auk, 70,
127–150
Bancroft, D.R. 1993 ‘Genetic variation and fitness
in Soay sheep’ Ph.D. Thesis, University of
Cambridge
Armstrong, Rev. E.A. 1955 The Wren London
Bancroft, D.R. 1995 ‘A microsatellite polymorphism
at the ovine pituitary adenylate cyclase activating
polypeptide gene which can be co-amplified with
two other loci’ Animal Genetics, 26, 59
Armstrong, E.A. 1959 ‘The behaviour and breeding
environment of the St Kilda wren’ British Birds, 52,
136-138
Arnet, H. (ed.) Extracts from the Records of the
Burgh of Edinburgh 1701–1718
Arrowsmith, A. 1809 Memoir relative to the
construction of the Map of Scotland published by
him in 1807 London
Atkinson, G.C. 1831 A few Weeks’ Ramble among
the Hebrides in the Summer of 1831 Ms. Account
in NTS Archive
Atkinson, G.C. 1832 ‘Notice of St Kilda’
Transactions of the Natural History Society of
Northumberland, 2, 215–225
Atkinson, G.C. 1838 ‘An account of an expedition
to St Kilda in 1831’ Transactions of the Natural
History Society of Northumberland. Durham and
Newcastle, 2, 215–225, map P1 III
Atkinson, R. and Ainslie, J. 1940 ‘British breeding
status of Leach’s fork-tailed Petrel’ British Birds, 34,
50–55
Atkinson, R. 1947 ‘Studies of some species rarely
photographed .vi. The St Kilda wren’ British Birds,
40, 145 pls.12–15
Atkinson, R. 1949 Island Going London (Reprint,
1995 Birlinn, Edinburgh)
Bagenal, T.B. 1953 ‘The birds on St Kilda 1952’
Scottish Naturalist, 65, 19–24
Bagenal, T.B. 1957 ‘Vertical range of some littoral
animals on St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 69, 50–51
Bagenal, T.B. 1958 ‘The feeding of nestling St Kilda
Wrens’, Bird Study, 5, 83–87
Baillie, Lady, of Polkemmet 1875 ‘A short visit to St
Kilda by a Lady: 1874’ Church of Scotland
Missionary Record, January 1875, 254–257
Baldwin, J. 1974 ‘Sea bird fowling in Scotland and
Faroe’ Folk Life, 12, 60–103
74
Bancroft, D.R., Pemberton J.M. and King P.W. 1995
‘Extensive protein and microsatellite variability in
an isolated, cyclic ungulate population’ Heredity,
74, 326–336
Bancroft, D.R., Pemberton, J.M., Albon, S.D.,
Robertson, A., MacColl, A.D.C., Smith, J.A.,
Stevenson, I.R. and Clutton-Brock, T.H., 1995
‘Molecular genetic variation and individual survival
during population crashes of an unmanaged
ungulate population’ Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society, 347, 263–273
Barrett-Hamilton, G.E.H. 1899 ‘On the species of
the genus Mus inhabiting St. Kilda.’ Proceedings of
the Zoological Society London, 77–88
Barrett-Hamilton, G.E.H. 1899 ‘On two recently
described mice from St Kilda’ Annals of Scottish
Natural History, 31, 129–140
Barrett-Hamilton, G.E.H. 1900 ‘On geographical and
individual variation in Mus sylvaticus and its allies’
Proceedings of the Zoological Society London,
387–428
Barrett-Hamilton, G.E.H. 1906 ‘On a collection of
mice (Mus hirtensis and M. muralis) from St Kilda’
Annals of Scottish Natural History, 57, 1–4
Barrett-Hamilton, G.E.H. 1910 A History of British
Mammals London
Barrington, R.M. 1866 ‘Notes on the flora of St
Kilda’ Journal of Botany, 24, 213–216
Barrington, R.M. 1884 ‘The St Kilda Wren’
Zoologist, 8, 383–385
Barrington, R.M. 1913 ‘Ascent of Stack na Biorrach,
St Kilda’ Alpine Journal, 27, 195–202
Barron, J. 1912 ‘The Northern Institution and its
leading members 1825–1835’ Inverness Courier,
Inverness
Barry, J. 1980 ‘Aircraft wrecks on St Kilda’ After the
Battle, 30, 28–43
Basham, S. 1991 ‘Subterranean structures on Hirta,
St Kilda, Scotland’ Bulletin Subterranea Britannica,
27, 5–6
Baxter, C. and Crumley, J. 1988 St Kilda. A portrait
of Britians’ remotest island landscape, Colin Baxter
Photography, Lanark
Baxter, C. and Quine, D. 2002 St Kilda. Colin Baxter
Photography, Grantown-on-Spey
Baxter, J.M. 1998 ‘Spectacular Underwater Secrets
of St Kilda’ Heritage Scotland, 15(1), 22-25.
Beare, T.H. 1908 ‘Notes on the Coleoptera from St
Kilda’ Annals of Scottish Natural History, 17, 30–33
Beare, T.H. 1916 ‘Notes on Coleoptera from St
Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 258–260
Benzie, D. and Gill, J.C. 1974 ‘Radiography of the
skeletal and dental condition of the Soay sheep’
Chapter 12 in Jewell, P.A., Milner, C. and Boyd,
J.M. (eds). Island Survivors: The Ecology of the
Soay Sheep of St Kilda Athlone Press, London
Berry, R.J. 1969 ‘History in the evolution of
Apodemus sylvaticus (Mammalia) at one end of its
range’ Journal of Zoology, 159, 311–328
Birnie, G.W.V. 1972 ‘A census of puffins (Fratercula
arctica) on Hirta and Dun (St Kilda), July 1969
unpublished
Birnie, G.W.V. and Yule, R.F. 1969 ‘A count of
fulmars on Hirta’ unpublished
Bones, M. 1992 ‘The Garefowl or Great Auk
Pinguinis impennis’ Hebridean Naturalist, 11, 15-24
Boswell, J. 1785 The Journal of a Tour to the
Hebrides (Oxford University reprint, 1974)
Bourne, W.R.P. and Harris, M.P. 1979 ‘Birds of the
Hebrides: seabirds’ Proceedings of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, 77B, 445-475
Bowen, D. Q., Rose, J., McCabe, A. M. and
Sutherland, D.G. 1986 ‘Correlation of Quarternary
Glaciations in England, Ireland, Scotland and
Wales’ Quarternary Science Reviews, 5, 299-340
Boyd, J.M. 1952 ‘St Kilda in 1952’ Scottish Field,
October, 1952
Boyd, J.M. 1953 ‘The sheep population of Hirta
1952’ Scottish Naturalist, 65, 25–28
Boyd, J.M.1954 ‘The St Kilda wren in village area,
Hirta, 1952’ Scottish Naturalist, 66, 47–49
Boyd, J.M. 1955 ‘Golden Eagle at St Kilda’ British
Birds, 48, 454
Boyd, J.M. 1956 ‘Field mouse population in Village
area, May 1955’ Oikos, 7, 110–116
Boyd, J.M. 1956 ‘The sheep population of Hirta,
St Kilda, 1955’ Scottish Naturalist, 68, 10–13
Boyd, J.M. 1956 ‘The Lumbricidae of Hirta, St Kilda’
Annual Magazine of Natural History, 9, 129–133
Blair, J. 1962 ‘At Last – St Kilda’ Scots Magazine,
Febuary, 377–384
Boyd, J.M. 1956 ‘The Lumbricidae in the Hebrides
2 Geographical Distribution’ Scottish Naturalist, 68,
165–172
Blankenhorn, V.S. 1979 ‘From the Farthest Hebrides’
(Review article) The Scottish Review, 16, 53–55
Boyd, J.M. 1957 ‘Animals and humans at St Kilda’
Discovery, 344–348
Boddington, D. 1959 ‘St Kilda, Outer Hebrides’ Bird
Migration, 1, 24–25, 72–73
Boyd, J.M. 1957 ‘Ecological distribution of the
Lumbricidae in the Hebrides’ Proceedings of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, 66B, 311–338
Boddington, D. 1960 ‘Unusual mortality of young
puffins on St Kilda, 1959’ Scottish Birds, 1, 218-220
Boddington, D. and Maclellan, G. 1959 ‘Birds on St
Kilda 1958-59’ unpublished
Boece, Hector 1527 Scotorum Regni Description f
xiiii: part of: Scotorum Historiae Prima Gentis
Origine cum aliarum et rerum et gentium illustratione
non vulgari Paris (another edition 1574, (f 8))
Boyd, J.M. 1957 ‘Lumbricidae at Boreray, St Kilda’
Glasgow Naturalist, 17, 280–281
Boyd, J.M. 1960 ‘The distribution and numbers of
kittiwakes and guillemots at St Kilda’ British Birds,
53, 252–264
Boyd, J.M. 1960 ‘Birds on Boreray, St Kilda, May
1960’ unpublished
75
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Boyd, J.M. 1961 ‘The gannetry of St Kilda’ Journal
of Animal Ecology, 30, 117-136
Boyd, J.M. 1969 ‘Annotated map of kittiwake and
guillemot colonies’ unpublished
Boyd, J.M., Doney,I.M., Gunn, R.G. and Jewell, P.A.
1964 ‘The Soay sheep of the island of Hirta,
St Kilda. A study of a feral population’ Proceedings
of the Zoological Society of London, 42, 129–163
Boyd, J.M. Munns, D.J. Whitehouse, A.A.K. 1956
‘Birds in St Kilda, May 1955’ Scottish Naturalist, 68,
14–22
Boyd, J.M. Twenion, A. and Wallace, D.I.M.
1957 ‘The birds in St Kilda, mid summer 1956’
Scottish Naturalist, 69, 94–112
Buchan, A. 1727 A Description of St Kilda
Lumisden and Robertson, Edinburgh (reprinted
with substantial alterations by Miss Buchan, 1752.)
Buchan, J.N.S. Harrisson, T.H. and Lack, D. 1932
‘Early autumn migration at St Kilda in 1931’ Scottish
Naturalist, 3–8
Buchan, J.N.S. Harrisson, T.H., Lack, D., MoyThomas, J.A., Petch, C.P. and Stewart, M. 1937
St Kilda Papers 1931 Oxford University Press, Oxford
Buchanan, G. 1762 The History of Scotland
Edinburgh
Boyd, J.M. and Waters, W.E. 1963 ‘Rock thrush on
St Kilda’ British Birds, 56, 66–67
Buchanan, J.L. 1793 Travels in the Western
Hebrides: from 1782 to 1790 London
Boyd, J.M. and Wormell, P. 1958 ‘Spring observations
on the Manx shearwtaer and small petrels on
St Kilda and Rhum’ Scottish Birds, 1, 46–48
Buchanan, M. 1983 St Kilda: A Photographic
Album, William Blackwood, Edinburgh
Brash, I. 1965 ‘St Kilda – Please Open’ Scots
Magazine, May, 160–163
Brathay Exploration Group 1972 ‘Field studies on
St Kilda, 1971’ Brathay Field Studies Report,
No. 20, 12–13
Brazenor, H. 1908 ‘Proposed dealers’ raid on the
Birds of St Kilda and the Outer Hebrides’ Annals of
Scottish Natural History, 17, 35–36
Bristow, W.S. 1927 ‘The spider fauna of the
Western Isles of Scotland’ Scottish Naturalist,
88–94, 117–122
British Geological Survey 1984. St Kilda 1:25,000
Special Sheet (Solid Edition)
British Geological Survey 1991. St Kilda (57ºN
10ºW) Solid Geology. 1:250,000 Map Series
British Geological Survey 1991. St Kilda (57ºN
10ºW) Seabed Sediments. 1:250,000 Map Series
British Geological Survey 1991. 1:1,000,000
Geology of the United Kingdom, Ireland the
Adjacent Continental Shelf (North Sheet)
76
Brougham, Lord 1871 Memoirs of the Life and
Times of Lord Brougham written by himself London
and Edinburgh
Brooke, M.L. 1972 ‘Population estimates for
puffins on Soay and Boreray and an assessment of
the rate of predation by gulls’ Brathay Field Studies
Report, No. 20, 4–6
Buchanan, M. (ed.) 1995 St Kilda: The Continuing
Story, HMSO, Edinburgh
Burrill, J.E.O. 1958 ‘Gunners on St Kilda’ Journal of
the Royal Artillery, 85, 97–101
Cadman, P., Ellis, J., Geiger, D., and Piertney, S.
1993 ‘A survey of the marine fauna of the St Kilda
archipelago’ Report of Department of Marine
Biology University of Wales, Swansea
Cameron, M. 1969 ‘Our childhood on St Kilda’
Scots Magazine, March, 567–571
Cameron, M. 1973 Childhood days on St. Kilda. S.
Barker Johnson, Gairloch
Campbell, A. 1818 Albyn’s Anthology, Oliver and
Boyd, Edinburgh
Campbell, J.L 1953 ‘Smallpox on St Kilda’
Scots Magazine, May, 168–172
Campbell, R. 1799 An Account of the Island of St
Kilda and Neighbouring Islands, Visited August
1799. National Library of Scotland, Ms. 3051
Campbell, R. 1945 Obituary: ‘John Mathieson
FRESE FRSGS’ Scottish Geographical Magazine,
61, 71
Campbell, R. 1946 ‘Dr Johnson was wrong’
Scots Magazine, December, 203–208
Campbell, R.N. 1974 ‘St Kilda and its sheep’ in
Jewell, P.A., Milner, C. and Boyd, J.M. (eds). 1974
Island Survivors: The Ecology of the Soay Sheep of
St Kilda, Athlone Press, London, pp. 8–35
Carmichael, A. 1928 Carmina Gadelica Vol. I
(1928a) Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London
Carmichael, A. 1928 Carmina Gadelica Vol. 2
(1928b) Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London
Carmichael, A. 1941 Carmina Gadelica Vol. 4 (1941)
Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London
Carmichael, A. 1954 Carmina Gadelica Vol. 5 (1954)
Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London
Carmichael, A. 1971 Carmina Gadelica Vol. 6 (1971)
Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London
Carruthers, R. 1843 The Highland Notebook; or
sketches and anecdotes, A and C Black, Edinburgh
Carter, A.E.J. and Waterston, J. 1909 ‘On some
Scottish Diptera-Stratiomidae to Asilidae’ Annals of
Scottish Natural History, 91–96
Clarke, W.E. 1895 ‘White-fronted goose in St Kilda’
Annals of Scottish Natural History, 1895, 252–253
Clarke, W.E. 1911 ‘The Birds of St Kilda’ Annals of
Scottish Natural History, 1911, 51–52
Clarke, W.E. 1912 ‘Baird’s sandpiper (Tringa bairdii)
at St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 1912, 9–10
Clarke, W.E. 1912 Studies in Bird Migration;
London: Gurney and Jackson; Edinburgh: Oliver &
Boyd
Clarke, W.E. 1913 ‘Song Thrush of Outer Hebrides’
Scottish Naturalist, 124–128
Clarke, W.E. 1914 ‘Notes on mice of St Kilda’
Scottish Naturalist, 124–128
Clarke, W.E 1915 ‘The wren at St Kilda, its status,
plumages and habits’ Scottish Naturalist, 291–296
Clarke, W.E 1915 ‘Corncrake on St Kilda’ Scottish
Naturalist, 333
Clarke, W.E 1916 ‘Notes on some Scottish Birds
observed in 1915’ Scottish Naturalist, 75–79
Cassell’s Gazeteer of Great Britain and Ireland
(Newchurch-Somersetshire) 1897, London,
336–337
Clarke, W.E 1919 ‘Starlings of Shetland, Fair Isle
and St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 183–185
Celoria, F.1966 ‘St Kilda’ Keele University
Expedition Ms. report to NTS, Edinburgh
Clegg, E.J 1977 ‘Population changes in St Kilda
during the 19th and 20th centuries’ Journal of
Biosocial Science, 9, 293–307
Chalmers, N. 1980 ‘St Kilda’ in Kay, B. (ed.)
Odyssey-Voices from Scotland’s Recent Past
Edinburgh pp. 26–35
Chambers, William 1874 ‘The Story of Lady
Grange’ Chambers Journal 551 July 14, 1874,
449–452
Charnley, B. 1989 Last Greetings from St Kilda
Stenlake and McCourt, Glasgow
Charnley, B. 1993 A Voyage to St Kilda Maclean
Press, Portree
Cheyne, I.A., Foster, W.M. and Spence, J.B. 1974
‘The incidence of disease and parasites in the Soay
sheep population of Hirta’ Chapter 13 in Jewell,P.A,
Milner, C. and Boyd, J.M. (eds). Island Survivors:
the Ecology of the Soay Sheep of St Kilda Athlone
Press, London
Chudleigh, R.A. 1886 ‘The strangers’ cold’ British
Medical Journal, 4, 484
Clegg, E.J. 1982 ‘Further studies on the population
of St Kilda: coefficients of inbreeding and a partial
pedigree’ Proceedings of the Indian Statistical
Institute Golden Jubilee International Conference
on Human Genetics and Adaptation 1(eds) KC
Malhorta and A Basu, 9–14
Clegg, E.J. 1984 ‘Some factors associated with
island depopulation and the example of St Kilda’
Northern Scotland, 6, 3–11
Clugston, D.L., Forrester, R.W., McGowan, R.Y. and
Zonfrillo, B. 2001 ‘The Scottish List – species and
subspecies’ Scottish Birds, 22, 33–49
Clutton-Brock, J., Dennis-Byran, K., Armitage, P.J.,
and Jewell, P.A. 1990 ‘Osteology of the Soay sheep’
Bulletin of the British Museum Natural History
(Zoology), 56(1), 1–56
Clutton-Brock, T.H, Price, O.F., Albon, S.D. and
Jewell, P.A., 1991 ‘Persistent instability and
population regulation in Soay Sheep’ Journal of
Animal Ecology, 60, 593–608
77
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Clutton-Brock, T.H. Price, O.F., Albon, S.D., and
Jewell, P.A. 1992 ‘Early development and
population fluctuations in Soay Sheep’ Journal of
Animal Ecology, 61, 381–396
Clutton-Brock, T.H., and Lonergan, M. 1994 ‘Culling
regimes and sex ratio biases in Highland red deer’
Journal of Applied Ecology, 31, 521–527
Coates, R. 1988 ‘Notes on the Past of the Gaelic
Dialect of St Kilda’ Brighton, University of Sussex
Cognitive Science Research Reports 81
Coates, R. 1990 The Place-names of St Kilda, Edwin
Mellen Press, Lampeter
Cunningham , P. 1990 ‘Outer Hebrides bird report
for 1986, 1987 & 1988’ Hebridean Naturalist, 10,
48-63
Curwen, E.C. 1938 ‘The Hebrides: a cultural
backwater’, Antiquity, 12, 261–289
Dale, C.W. 1884 ‘Captures in North Uist and St
Kilda’ Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 20,
213–214
Dale, C.W. 1884 ‘Capture of insects in the Hebrides
and in St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 7, 284
Cockburn, A.M. 1935 ‘The Geology of St Kilda’
Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 58,
511–548
Dale, C.W. 1889 ‘The insect fauna of St Kilda’
Entomologist, 22, 12–13
Collacott, R.A. 1981 ‘Neonatal Tetanus in St Kilda’
Scottish Medical Journal, 26, 224–227
Davenport, H. 1984 ‘Post Office writes an island’s
epitaph’, The Observer 25 November
Collacott, R.A. 1985 ‘Medical and nursing services
to St Kilda’, Scottish Medical Journal, 30, 181–183
Davidson, J. 1969 Notes made after visiting St Kilda
in connection with the second edition of OS map
Ms. in National Monument Record of Scotland
Connell, R. 1887 St Kilda and the St Kildians,
Hamilton, Adams & Co., London
Cooper, J.B. 1931 The history of St Kilda from its
first settlement to a city and after 1840 to 1930
compiled by the order of the St. Kilda city council
by JBC. Melbourne
Corbet, A.S. 1945 ‘The Lepidoptera of St Kilda’
Entomologist, 78, 166–168
Cottam, M.B 1973 St Kilda Archaeological Survey
Ms. report to NTS, Edinburgh
Cottam, M.B. 1979 ‘Archaeology’ in A St Kilda
Handbook Small, A. (ed.) National Trust for
Scotland, Edinburgh
Crawley, M.J. 1993 The Flora of St Kilda, Imperial
College, Silwood Park
Cumming, C.F.G. 1883 In the Hebrides Chatto and
Windus, London 321–370
Cunningham, P. 1982 ‘The birds of the Outer
Hebrides in 1981’ Hebridean Naturalist, 6, 29-31
Cunningham, P. 1983 ‘Birds of the Outer Hebrides
in 1982’ Hebridean Naturalist, 7, 60-68
Cunningham, P. 1984 ‘Birds of the Outer Hebrides
in 1983’ Hebridean Naturalist, 8, 32-36
78
Cunningham , P. 1987 ‘Outer Hebrides bird report
for 1984 &1985’ Hebridean Naturalist, 9, 31-47
Davies, L. 1981 ‘Additions to the list of Diptera for
Hirta, St Kilda Group, Scotland’ Entomologist’s
Monthly Magazine, 116, 216–218
Davies, L. and Richardson, J. 1973 ‘Occurrence of
the two Petrobius spp.(Thysanura) in different
habitat types on Hirta, St Kilda’ Entomologist, 106,
16–22
Denny, A. 1902 ‘Outpost of the British Isles’ Travel
VII Oct. 1902, 258–263
Disney, R.H.L. and Davies, L. 1980 ‘Scuttle flies
from St Kilda’ Glasgow Naturalist, 19(6), 458–488
Dixon, C. 1885 ‘The Ornithology of St Kilda’ Ibis, 3,
69–97, 358–362
Dixon, C. 1888 Our Rarer Birds Frontispiece,
London 72–75
Dixon, H.G. 1886 ‘The strangers’ cold’ British
Medical Journal, 286
Donisthorpe, H. 1929–1931 ‘An annotated list of
the additions to the British coleopterous fauna
made since the supplementary volume (VI) of
Fowler’s ‘Coleoptera of theBritish Islands’
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 66, 143
Dougall, J. 1892 Epidemic on St Kilda island’ British
Medical Journal, 1388
Dresser, H.E. 1888 ‘On the wren on St Kilda’ Ibis, 4,
43–45
Dryden, J. 1930 ‘St Kilda’s Floating Mail’ Gibbons
Stamp Monthly, December, 1930
Duckworth, C.L.D. and Langmuir, G.E. 1950 West
Highland Steamers, Richard Tilling, London
Duffey, E.A.G. 1959 Spiders taken on St Kilda with
extracts from a field notebook St Kilda Nature
Reserve Record: The Nature Conservancy
(Unpublished)
Emeleus, C.H. and Gyopari, M.C. 1992. British
Tertiary Volcanic Province. Geological Conservation
Review. Chapman and Hall, London
Emery, F.V. 1958 ‘The Geography of Robert Gordon
1580–1661 and Sir Robert Sibbald 1641–1722’
Scottish Geographical Magazine, 74, 3–12
Emery, N. 1987 ‘Excavations on St Kilda’ Interim
reports in St Kilda Mail, 11 1987, 6–8
Emery, N. 1988 ‘Excavations on St Kilda’ Interim
reports in St Kilda Mail, 12 1988, 9–10
Dun, F. 1848 Orain na h-Albain, Wood and Co,
Edinburgh
Emery, N. 1989 ‘Excavations on St Kilda’ Interim
reports in St Kilda Mail, 13 1989,16–17
Duncan, N., Bullock, D., and Taylor, K. 1981 A
report on the ecology and natural history of
Boreray, St Kilda Department of Zoology, University
of Durham.
Emery, N. 1990 ‘Excavations on St Kilda’ Interim
reports in St Kilda Mail, 14 1990, 19–21
Duncan, N., Taylor, K.G., Wanless, S. and Wood, V.
1982 ‘The birds of Boreray, St Kilda’ Seabird
Report, 6, 18-25
Dunlop, J. 1978 The British Fisheries Society
1786–1893, John Donald, Edinburgh
Dunn, D. 1981 St Kilda’s Parliament, Faber and
Faber, London
Emery, N .1991 ‘Excavations at St Kilda, 1990’
University of Durham and University of Newcastle
upon Tyne Archaeological Report 14, (1990) 61–65
Emery, N. 1991 ‘Excavations on St Kilda’ Interim
reports in St Kilda Mail, 15 1991, 18–19
Emery, N. 1996 Excavations on Hirta 1986–90
HMSO, Edinburgh
Dwelly, E. 1920 The Illustrated Gaelic–English
Dictionary
Ershine,W. 1799 Epistle from Lady Grange to
Edward D, esq.: written during her confinement in
the Island of St. Kilda. Printed for Mundell & Son,
Edinburgh
Eagle C.W. 1914 ‘Notes on the mice of St Kilda’
Scottish Naturalist, 20, 124–128
Evans, H. 1899 ‘Great Shearwaters at St Kilda’
Annals of Scottish Natural History, 239
Edwards, F.W. and Collin, J.E. 1932 ‘A revised list of
Diptera for St Kilda’ Entomologist’s Monthly
Magazine, 68, 263–266
Evans, W. 1906 ‘Some Invertebrata, including
Ixodes borealis from St Kilda’ Annals of Scottish
Natural History, 15, 83–8
Eggeling, W.J. 1959 ‘Migrants at St Kilda in 1957
and 1958’ Scottish Birds 1, 56-64
Evans, W. 1912 ‘Hemiptera-Heteroptera from St
Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 10,93
Elliot, J.S. 1895 ‘St Kilda and the St Kildans’ Journal
of the Birmingham Natural History and
Philosophical Society, 1, 113–135
Evans, W. 1912 ‘Marionena sphagnetorum (Vejd.)
from St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 10,118
Elliot, T.J. 1895 ‘Observations on the fauna of St
Kilda’ The Zoologist, 19, 281–286
Elwes, H.J. 1869 ‘Bird stations of the Outer
Hebrides’ Ibis, 5, 20–37
Elwes, J. 1912 ‘Notes on the primitive breeds of
sheep in Scotland’ Scottish Naturalist, 10, 1–7,
25–29
Evans, W. 1912 ‘Tetracanthella wahlgreni Axels.’
Scottish Naturalist, 10,166
Evans, W. 1912 ‘Some Lepidoptera and other
insects form St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 10, 262
Evans, W. 1921 ‘Some moss records from St Kilda’
Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical
Society of Edinburgh, 28, 67–69
79
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Ewart, J.C. 1913 ‘Domestic sheep and their wild
ancestors’ Transactions of the Highland and
Agricultural Society Scotland, 5, 160–191
Ewing,W. 1914 Annals of the Free Church of
Scotland 2vols, T.T. Clark, Edinburgh
Fabin, Little and Williams 1989 The Islands of
Scotland: including Skye. Scottish Mountaineering
Trust
Fannin, N.G.T. 1989. Offshore investigations 196687. British Geological Survey Technical Report
WB/89/2
Farmer, D.H. 1978 The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
Oxford University Press, Oxford
Fea, J. 1787 Considerations on the Fisheries
London
Fenton, A. and Hendry, C. 1984 ‘Wooden tumbler
locks in Scotland and beyond’ Review of Scottish
Culture, 1, 11–28
Ferguson, M. 1885 Ramblers in Skye, with sketch
of a trip to St Kilda Irvine
Ferguson, T. 1958 ‘Infantile Tetanus in some
Western Isles in the second half of the nineteenth
century’ Scottish Medical Journal, 3, 140–146
Fergusson, D.A., Angus J. and London, J.F.G. 1978
From the Farthest Hebrides MacMillan, Toronto
Fisher, J. 1948 ‘Sea-cliffs of the north’ Picture Post,
June 19th
Fisher, J. 1948 ‘St Kilda: A natural experiment’ New
Naturalist Journal, 1, 91–109
Fisher, J. Ferguson-Lees, I.J. and Campbell, H. 1949
‘Breeding of Northern golden plover on St Kilda’
British Birds, 42, 379–382
Fisher, J. 1951 Portraits of Islands London
Fisher, J. 1952 The Fulmar Collins, Glasgow
Fisher, J. and Lockley, R. 1954 Seabirds: an
introduction to the natural history of the seabirds of
the North Atlantic. Collins: London
Fisher, J. and Vevers, H.G. 1943 ‘The breeding,
distribution, history and population of the North
Atlantic gannet (Sula bassana). Part 1. A history of
the gannet’s colonies and the census in 1939’
Journal of Animal Ecology, 12, 173–213
80
Fisher, J. and Vevers, H.G. 1951 ‘The present
population of the North Atlantic gannet (Sula
bassana)’ Proceedings of the International
Ornithological Congress, 10, 463–467
Fisher, J. and Waterston, G. 1941 ‘Breeding
distribution, history and population of the fulmar in
the British Isles’ Journal of Animal Ecology, 10,
204–272
Flegg, J.J.M. 1972 ‘The puffin on St Kilda, 1969-71’
Bird Study, 19, 7–12
Fleming, A. 1995 ‘St Kilda: stone tools, dolerite
quarries and long-term survival.’ Antiquity, 69,
25–35
Fleming, A. 2000 ‘St Kilda: Family, Community, and
the Wider World’ Journal of Anthropological
Archaeology, 19, 348–368
Fleming, A. and Edmonds, M. 2000 ‘St Kilda:
quarries, fields and prehistoric agriculture’
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, 129, 119–160
Fleming, J. 1828 A History of British Animals (Great
Auk) Edinburgh 129–130
Forbes, R. 1895 The Lyon in Mourning (ed.) Henry
Paton, Scottish History Society, Edinburgh
Fordun, John of 1871 Chronica Gentis Scotorum
(ed.) W.F. Skene, Edmonston and Douglas,
Edinburgh, 1, 1871
Fordun, John of 1872 Chronica Gentis Scotorum
(ed.) W.F. Skene, Edmonston and Douglas,
Edinburgh, 2, 1872
Forsyth, Robert 1808 The Beauties of Scotland 5, T
Bonar and J Brown
Fraser, I. 1978 ‘Placenames’ Tocher, 28, 258–9
Freer, A.G. 1903 Outer Isles, Constable and Co.,
Westminster
Fullager, P.J. 1962 ‘Bird records from St Kilda’
Scottish Birds, 2, 73–74
Fuller, E. 1999 The Great Auk, Errol Fuller,
Southborough
Fullerton 1848 A Parliamentary Gazetteer of
Scotland (several vols)
Furness, R.W. 1983 Leach’s petrel population on
St Kilda Report to the Nature Conservancy Council
Gillies, N. 1988 Autobiographical notes, In: Quine,
D.A. St Kilda Portraits Ambleside, 37–39
Furness, R.W. 1984 ‘Leach’s petrel populations on
St Kilda’ British Ecological Society Bulletin, 15,
84–87
Gilmour, H. 1958 ‘Mail boat from St Kilda’ Post
Office Magazine, December
Gladstone, J. 1928 ‘Notes on the flora’ In St Kilda
(ed. J. Mathieson). Scottish Geographical
Magazine, 44(2), 77–79
Furness, R.W. and Todd, C.M. 1984 ‘Diets and
feeding of fulmars Fulmarus glacialis during the
breeding season: a comparison between St Kilda
and Shetland colonies’ Ibis, 126, 379–387
Gordon, S. 1933 Islands of the West, London
Gambles, R.M. 1935 ‘Psocoptera’ Scottish
Naturalist, 83–88
Gordon, S. 1937 Afoot in the Hebrides, Cassell and
Co, London
Gardner, M. 1986 ‘Population on decline: St Kilda
1856–1891’ Local Population Studies, 36, 27–35
Grant, I.F. 1959 The Macleods: The History of a
Clan, Faber and Faber, London
Gauld, D.T., Bagenal, T.B. and Connel, J.H. 1953
‘The marine fauna and flora of St Kilda, 1952’,
Scottish Naturalist, 65, 29–49
Great Britain, The Nature Conservancy 1969
National Nature Reserve: St. Kilda. Edinburgh
Gauld, W.W. 1989 ‘In the lee of Rockall’ Northern
Studies, 26, 43–55
Geikie, Sir A. 1897 The Ancient Volcanoes of Great
Britain, Macmillan and Co., London
George, R.S. 1959 ‘A Collection of Fleas
(Siphonaptera) from St Kilda’ Entomologist’s
Gazette, 10, 54–57
Gibson, A.H. 1891 ‘The Phanerogamic Flora of
St Kilda’ Transactions of the Botanical Society of
Edinburgh, 19, 155–158
Gibson, G. 1925 ‘The blackhouses of the Outer
Isles’, Caledonian Medical Journal, 12, 364–372
Green, E.E. ‘Notes on the Coccidae of Scotland’
Scottish Naturalist, 25–30, 55–59
Grenfell, B.T., Price, O.F., Albon, S.D. and CluttonBrock, T.H. 1992 ‘Overcompensation and
population cycles in an ungulate’ Nature, 355,
823–826
Grieg, S 1940 ‘Viking antiquities in Scotland’ in
Shetelig, H. (ed.) Viking Antiquities in Great Britain
and Ireland Oslo
Grieve, S. 1885 The Great Auk or Garefowl, London
Grimshaw, P.H. 1907 ‘On the Diptera of St Kilda’
Annals of Scottish Natural History, 16, 150–158
Gibson, G. 1928 ‘The tragedy of St Kilda’
Caledonian Medical Journal, April 1928, 50–62
General Register Office for Scotland nd. OPR
111/2. St Kilda. Registers of Baptisms, Marriages
and Deaths
Gilbert, O.L., Watling, R. and Coppins, B.J. 1979
‘Lichen ecology on St Kilda’ The Lichenologist, 2,
191–202
General Register Office for Scotland 1871
CEN/1871/111 3. St Kilda. Census Enumerators
Returns, 1871
Gillies, A. 1884 Evidence to Napier Commission
837–5
General Register Office for Scotland 1891
CEN/1891/111 4. St Kilda. Census Enumerators
Returns, 1891
Gillies, D. 1930 School Exercise Book Scottish
Record Office GD 1/817/1
Gillies, D.J. 1988 Autobiographical notes, In: Quine,
D.A. St Kilda Portraits Ambleside, 39–51
Gillies, J. (ed.) 1786 A Collection of Ancient and
Modern Gaelic Poems and Songs transmitted from
gentlemen in the Highland of Scotland, etc Perth
Gordon, J.J. 1981 ‘Bird observations on St Kilda’
Hebridean Naturalist, 5, 17-22
Grubb, P. 1966 ‘Grey-cheeked thrushes on St Kilda
and in Morayshire’ Scottish Birds, 4, 310-311
Grubb, P. and Gwynne, D. 1965 ‘Gyr falcon at St
Kilda’ Scottish Birds, 3, 412-416
81
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Grubb, P. 1974 ‘The rut and behaviour of Soay
rams’ Chapter 8 in Jewell, P.A., Milner, C. and
Boyd, J.M. (eds) Island Survivors; the Ecology of
the Soay Sheep of St Kilda, Athlone Press, London
Gulland, F.M.D. 1991 ‘The role of parasites in the
population dynamics of Soay sheep on St Kilda’
Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cambridge
Gulland, F.M.D. and Fox, M. 1992 ‘Epidemiology of
nematode infections of Soay sheep (Ovis aries L.)
on St Kilda’ Parasitology, 105, 481–492
Gulland, F.M.D. 1992 ‘The role of nematode
parasites in Soay sheep (Ovis aries L.) mortality
during a population crash’ Parasitology, 105,
493–503
Gulland, F.M.D., Albon, S.D., Pemberton, J.M.,
Moorcroft, P.R. and Clutton-Brock, T.H. 1993
‘Parasite-associated polymorphism in a cyclic
ungulate population’ Proceedings of the Royal
Society, 254B, 7–13
Gurney, J.H. 1913 The Gannet: A Bird with a History
London 116–150
Gwynne, D., Milner, C. and Hornung, M. 1974 ‘The
vegetation and soils of Hirta’ in Jewell, P.A., Milner,
C. and Boyd, J.M.(eds) Island Survivors; The Ecology
of the Soay Sheep of St Kilda Athlone Press,
London pp 36-87
Hall, A.M. 1991 ‘Pre-Quarternary landscape
evolution in the Scottish Highlands’ Transactions of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 82,
1-26
Hamilton, J.D. 1963 ‘The freshwater fauna of Hirta,
St Kilda’ The Glasgow Naturalist, 18, 233–241
Hamp, Eric P. 1991 ‘A few St Kilda toponyms and
forms’ Nomina, 14, 73–76
Hansom, J.D. in press St Kilda. Coastal
Geomorphology of Great Britain. Geological
Conservation Review. Peterborough, Joint Nature
Conservation Committee.
Harding, P.T. 1976 Provisional Atlas of the Crustacea
of the British Isles – Part 1, Isopoda: Oniscoidea Woodlice Institute of Terrestrial Ecology,
Huntingdon
Harding, R.R. 1966 ‘The major ultrabasic and basic
intrusions of St Kilda, Outer Hebrides’ Transactions
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 17, 419–444
82
Harding, R.R. 1966 ‘The Mullach Sgar Complex,
St Kilda, Outer Hebrides’ Scottish Journal of
Geology, 2, 165-178
Harding, R.R. 1967. ‘The major ultrabasic intrusions
of St Kilda, Outer Hebrides’ Transactions of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, 66, 419-444.
Harding, R.R., Merriman, R.J. and Nancarrow,
P.H.A. 1984 St Kilda: An Illustrated Account of the
Geology British Geological Survey, HMSO
Harman, M. 1979 ‘An incised cross on Hirt, Harris’
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, 108, 254–258
Harman, M. 1997 An Isle called Hirte. A history and
culture of St Kilda to 1930. Maclean Press,
Isle of Skye
Harris, M.P. and Murray, S. 1977 ‘Puffins on St
Kilda’ British Birds, 70, 50–65
Harris, M.P. 1976 ‘The present status of the puffin
in Britain and Ireland’ British Birds, 69, 239-264
Harris, M.P. 1978 ‘Supplementary feeding of young
puffins Fratercula arctica’ Journal of Animal
Ecology, 47, 15-23
Harris, M.P. 1979 ‘Measurements and weights of
British puffins’ Bird Study, 26, 179-186
Harris, M.P. 1982 ‘The breeding season of British
puffins’ Scottish Birds, 12, 11-17
Harris, M.P. 1982 ‘Seasonal variation in the fledging
weight of the Puffin Fratercula arctica’ Ibis, 124,
100-103
Harris, M.P. 1984 The Puffin T & AD Poyser, Calton
Harris, M.P. and Murray, S. 1981 ‘Monitoring of
Puffin numbers at Scottish colonies’ Bird Study, 28,
15-20
Harris, M.P. and Murray, S. 1989 Birds of St Kilda,
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology & Natural
Environmental Research Council, UK
Harris, M.P. and Rothery, P. 1988 ‘Monitoring of
puffin numbers on Dun, St Kilda 1977–87’ Bird
Study, 35, 97–99
Harrison, T.H. 1932 ‘Numbers of Grey Seals on
North Rona and St Kilda’ Journal of Animal
Ecology, 1, 83
Harrison, T.H. 1933 ‘Counts of Gannets in Scottish
Islands’ Journal of Animal Ecology, 2, 116
Harrison, T.H. and Buchan, J.N.S. 1934 ‘A field
study of the St Kilda wren, Troglodytes troglodytes
hirtensis, with special reference to its numbers,
territory and food habits’ Journal of Animal
Ecology, 3, 133–145
Harrison, T.H. and Buchan, J.N.S. 1936 ‘Further
notes on a field study of the St Kilda wren
(Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis seeb.) with
special reference to its nest habits and song’
Scottish Naturalist, 9–31
Harrison, T.H. and Lack, D. 1934 ‘The breeding
birds of St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 1934, 59–69
Harrison, T.H. and Moy-Thomas, J.A. 1932 ‘House
Mouse’ Nature, 129, 131
Harrison, T.H. and Moy-Thomas, J.A. 1933 ‘The mice
of St Kilda’ Journal of Animal Ecology, 2, 109–115
Harvie-Brown, J.A.1902 and 1903 ‘Avifauna of
Outer Hebrides’ Annals of Scottish Natural History,
83–92, 136–51, 199–217 and 1–22
Harvie-Brown, J.A. 1912 ‘The fulmar, its past and
present distribution as breeding-species in the
British Isles’ Scottish Naturalist, 97–102, 121–132
Harvie-Brown, J.A. and Buckley, T.E. 1888
A Vertebrate Fauna of the Outer Hebrides, David
Douglas: Edinburgh
Hasler, H.G. 1949–50 ‘Westabout to Rockall’
Yachtsman’s Annual, 7–9
Heron, R. 1794 General View of the Natural
Circumstances of the Hebrides, John Paterson,
Edinburgh
Hewitt, C.G. 1907 ‘Some Arthrostraca and other
invertebrata from St Kilda’ Annals of Scottish
Natural History, 219–221
Higgins, L.R. 1971 A Tangle of Islands
Holohan, A.M. 1985 ‘St Kilda: childbirth and the
women of Main Street’, Scottish Medical Journal,
30, 50–53
Holohan, A.M. 1986 ‘St Kilda: emigrants and
disease’ Scottish Medical Journal, 31, 46–49
Hopkins, G.H.E. and Rothschild, M. 1953 An
Illustrated catalogue of the Rothschild Collection of
Fleas(Siphonaptera) in the British Museum(Natural
History)with keys for the identification of the
species 1, 15 and 361, London
Horwitz, L.K. and Smith, P. 1990 ‘A radiographic
study of the extent of variation in cortical bone
thickness in Soay sheep’ Journal of Archaeological
Science, 17, 655–664
Hudson, G., Towers, W., Biddy J.S. and Henderson,
D.J. 1982 Soil Survey and Land Capability for
Agriculture: The Outer Hebrides. Soil Survey of
Scotland, Edinburgh
Hunter, W.R. and Hamilton, J.D. 1958 ‘Pisidium
from Hirta, St Kilda’ Journal of the Conchological
Society of London, 24, 247–248
Hay, G.D. 1972 ‘Scottish wooden tumbler locks’,
Post-Medieval Archaeology, 12, 125–127
Huntley, J.P. 1998 Life at the Edge of the World:
Evidence for Crop and Medicinal Plants from St
Kilda, Outer Hebrides Published electronically by
World Archaeological Congress
Heathcote, E. 1900 ‘A night in an ocean cave’ Wide
World Magazine, August, 91–96
Huxley, J. 1939 ‘Birds and men on St Kilda’
Geographical Magazine, 10, 69–82
Heathcote, E. 1901 ‘A Summer Sojourn in St Kilda’
Good Words, 42, 460–467
Illius, A.W. Albon, S.D., Pemberton, J.M., Gordon,
I.J. and Clutton-Brook, T.H. 1995 ‘Selection for
foraging efficiency during a population crash in
Soay sheep’ Journal of Animal Ecology, 64(4),
481-492
Heathcote, J.N. 1900 ‘On the Map of St Kilda’
Geographical Journal, 15, London, 142–144 and
map
Heathcote, J.N. 1901 ‘Climbing on St Kilda’ Scottish
Mountaineering Club Climbing Journal, 6, 146–151
Heathcote, N. 1900 St Kilda, Longmans Green &
Co: London
Inglis, H. et al. 1934 The Early Maps of Scotland
Edinburgh
Innes, H. 1962 Atlantic Fury Collins, London
Innes, H. 1967 Sea and Islands Collins, London
83
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Jewell, P.A. 1961 ‘The wild sheep of St Kilda’ New
Scientist, 114, 268–271
Kennedy, A. 1875 ‘Letter from St Kilda by Miss A.
Kennedy communicated with notes by Capt. F.W.L.
Thomas’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland, 10, 702–711
Jewell, P.A. 1966 ‘Breeding season and recruitment
in some British mammals confined on small
islands’ Symposium Zoological Society London, 15,
89–111
Kennedy, J. 1932 The Apostle of the North; the Life
and Labours of the Rev. Dr. J MacDonald Northern
Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing
Co., Inverness
Jewell, P.A. 1966 ‘The concept of home range in
mammals’ Symposium Zoological Society London,
18, 85–109
Kennedy, W.S. 1924 Ultissima Thule Edinburgh
Jackson, G. 1978 The British Whaling Trade London
Jewell, P.A. 1986 ‘Survival in a feral population of
primitive sheep on St Kilda, 0uter Hebrides,
Scotland’ National Geographic Research, 2,
401–406
Jewell, P.A. 1989 ‘Factors that affect fertility in a
feral population of sheep’ Zoological Journal of the
Linnaean Society, 95, 163–174
Jewell, P.A., Milner, C. and Boyd, J.M. 1974 Island
survivors: the ecology of the Soay sheep of St Kilda,
Athlone Press, London
Johnson, J. 1853 The Scots Musical Museum (eds)
William Stenhouse and David Laing, 4 vols,
Edinburgh
Johnson, P.G. and Pollard, T. 1998 Archaeological
fieldwork on Hirta, St Kilda: The 1998 Season.
Glasgow University Archaeological Research
Division Report 517
Johnson, P.G. 1998 Hovels, Hidey-Holes or Houses
for the Dead? The Scree Structures of Mullach Sgar,
Hirta, St Kilda Published electronically by World
Archaeological Congress
Johnson, S. and Boswell, J. 1930 Journey to the
Western Islands of Scotland and Journal of a Tour
to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, (Reprint,
Melven Press, Inverness 1978)
Joy, N.H. 1908 ‘Notes on Coleoptera from St Kilda,
mainly collected from birds’ nests’ Annals of
Scottish Natural History, 33–35
Joy, N.H. 1926 ‘Phyllodrepa puberla in St Kilda’
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 62, 94
Kearton, R. 1897 With Nature and a Camera
London (Reprint Melven Press, Inverness 1978)
84
Kearton, R. 1899 ‘Strange life of Lone St Kilda’
Wide World Magazine, 2, 69–77
Kerney, M.P. 1976 Atlas of the non-marine Mollusca
of the British Isles, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology,
Cambridge
Kerr, R. and Lockie, J.R. 1943 ‘Communion Tokens
of the Church of Scotland in the Nineteenth and
Twentieth centuries’ Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, 79, 26–80
Kevan, D.K. McE. 1960 ‘An aedeagal monstrosity in
Staphylinus ater Grav from St Kilda’ Entomologist’s
Monthly Magazine, 96, 226–227
Kimmins, D.E. 1966 ‘The status of Tinodes pusillus
McLachlan (1862) (Trichoptera Psychomyiidae)’
Entomologist’s Gazette, 17, 183–185
Kissling, W. 1943 ‘Character and purpose of the
Hebridean Blackhouse’ Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, 73, 75–100
Knox, J. 1787 A Tour through the Highlands of
Scotland and the Hebride Isles in 1786 London
Lack, D. 1931 ‘Coleoptera on St Kilda in 1931’
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 67, 276–279
Lack, D. 1932 ‘Further notes on insects from
St Kilda, including the orders Thysanura,
Dermapetra, Hemipetra, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera
(supplement) and Hymenoptera’ Entomologist’s
Monthly Magazine, 68, 139–145
Lack, D. 1931 ‘Effect of exodus from St Kilda on
the island’s flora and fauna’ Illustrated London News,
26th December
Lack, D. 1932 ‘Notes on the Diptera of St Kilda’
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 68, 139–145
Lack, D. 1937 St Kilda Papers Oxford
Lack, D. 1942 ‘Ecological features of bird-faunas of
British small islands’ Journal of Animal Ecology, 2,
9–36
Laing, D. 1876 ‘Mrs. Erskine, Lady Grange, in the
island of St. Kilda’ Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, X, 722–730
Laing, D. 1877 ‘An episode in the life of Mrs. Rachel
Erskine, Lady Grange, detailed by herself in a letter
from St. Kilda, January 20, 1738, and other original
papers’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland, XI, 593–608
Lawson, R. 1903 A Flight to St Kilda in July 1902
Paisley
Lawson, W.M. 1976 ‘Na Hiortaich’ Gairm, 94,
168–173
Lawson, W.M. 1981 ‘Families of St Kilda’, St Kilda
Mail, 5, 38–43
Lawson, W.M. 1993 Croft History: Isle of St Kilda,
Bill Lawson Publications, Northton
Lawson, W.M. 1993 St Kilda and its Church, Bill
Lawson Publications, Northton
Le Quesne, W.J. 1968 ‘Macrosteles ossianillssoni
(Hem. Cicadellidae) a new species previously
confused with M. sexnotalus (Fallen)’ Entomologist’s
Monthly Magazine, 103, 190–192
Long, D.G. and Ratcliffe, D.A. 1996 Bryophytes of
Hirta, St Kilda (Manuscript.)
Luff, M.L. and Davies, L. 1972 ‘Ecological
observations on some Carabidae (Col.) from St Kilda,
with notes on other beetles new to the island’
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 108, 46–51
Lungatoo, F.M. 1906 ‘St Kilda mail via Shetland’
St Martins Le Grand, 16, 211–212
Macaulay, K. 1764 The History of St Kilda T. Beckett
and P.A. de Hondt, London
Macaulay, K. 1765 A Voyage to, and History of
St Kilda Dublin
MacCallum, H. 1907 ‘St Kilda’ Caledonian Medical
Journal, 8, 18–24
MacCulloch, J. 1824 The Highlands and Western
Isles of Scotland 4 London
MacCulloch, J. 1819 A Description of the Western
Isles of Scotland 2 and map 3, 75, Hurst, Robinson
and Co., London
MacDiarmid, J. 1877 St Kilda and its Inhabitants
Edinburgh
Leaper, G. 1992 ‘Genevieve Leaper’s St Kilda’ Scots
Magazine, August, 466–471
MacDiarmid, J. 1878 ‘St Kilda and its inhabitants’
Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural
Society, 10 (4th ser.), 232–254
Leaper, G.M., Webb, A., Benn, S., Prendergast,
H.D.V., Tasker, M.L and Schofield, R. 1988 ‘Seabird
studies around St Kilda, June 1987’ Nature
Conservancy Council Chief Scientist Directorate
Report no. 804
MacDonald, A. and MacDonald, A. 1904 The Clan
Donald Northern Counties Publishing Co. Ltd.,
Inverness
Leslie, J. 1888 The History of Scotland (1596) trans.
by James Dalrymple, Blackwood, London and
Edinburgh
MacDonald, A.J. and MacDonald, A. 1911 The
MacDonald Collection of Gaelic Poetry Northern
Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing
Co. Ltd., Inverness
Leydon, J. and Campbell, A. 1802 ‘St Kilda Elegies’
Scots Magazine, December, 976–977
MacDonald, C.R. 1886 ‘St Kilda: Its inhabitants and
the diseases peculiar to them’ British Medical
Journal, 2, 160–163
Lloyd, C.S., Tasker, M.L. and Partridge, K. 1991 The
status of seabirds in Britain and Ireland, T&AD
Poyser: Calton
MacDonald, D. 1884 Evidence to the Napier
Commission, 870–3
Locket, G.H., Millidge, A.F. and Merrett, P. 1974
British Spiders 3, London
MacDonald, F. 2001 ‘St Kilda and the Sublime’
Ecumene, 8(2), 151–174.
Logie, D.W. 1889 An Account of a trip from Stirling
to St Kilda in S.S. Hebridean of Glasgow 12–17
August 1889 Stirling
MacDonald, J. 1811 General View of the
Agriculture of the Hebrides Edinburgh
85
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
MacDonald, J. 1823 Journal and Report of a visit to
the Island of St Kilda. (Appendix to SSPCK sermon
preached by Rev. W A Thomson, June 6 1822)
MacDonald, J. 1827 Journal appended to Gaelic
School Report 16 1827
MacDonald, K.N. (ed.) 1895 The Gesto Collection of
Highland Music Alexander MacLaren and Sons,
Glasgow
MacDonald, L. 1988 Autobiographical notes in
Quine, D.A. St Kilda Portraits Ambleside, 115–147
MacDonald, R.H. 1962 Notes on the Kingsburgh
Family Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
MacFarlane, W. 1908 Geographical Collections 3
vols. Edinburgh
Macgillivray, J. 1842 ‘An account of the island of St.
Kilda, chiefly with reference to its natural history;
from notes made during a visit in July 1840’
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 32, 47–178
MacGregor, A.A. 1931 A Last Voyage to St Kilda
London
MacGregor, A.A. 1969 The Farthest Hebrides
Michael Joseph, London
MacGregor, A.A. 1931 ‘The folklore of St Kilda’
Scottish Field, October, 128–9; November, 168–9
MacGregor, A.A. 1969 ‘St Kilda’s mailboats’
Country Life, October, 2
MacGregor, D.R. 1960 ‘The island of St Kilda – a
survey of its character and occupance’ Scottish
Studies, 4, 1–48
MacKay, J.A. 1978 Islands Postal History: Harris and
St Kilda. James A Mackay, Dumfries
MacKay, J.A. 1959 ‘Hiort an Diugh’ Gairm, 30,
145–147
MacKay, J.A. 1964 ‘Scotland’s remotest wireless
station’ Scots Magazine, October, 37–43
MacKay, W.R. 1985 ‘Early St Kilda – a
reconsideration’ West Highland Notes and Queries
26, 13–19, and 27, 17–21
MacKenzie, A. 1881 History of the MacDonalds
A. and W. MacKenzie, Inverness
MacKenzie, A.D. and MacKinnon, A.D. 1883 The
Family of MacKinnon Edward Stanford, London
MacKenzie, H.R. 1885–6 ‘St Kilda’ Celtic Magazine
11, 9–16, 62–69, 121–126
Mackenzie, J.B. 1905 ‘Antiquities and old customs
in St Kilda, compiled from notes made by Rev. Neil
Mackenzie, minister of St Kilda, 1829–43’
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, 39, 397–402
Mackenzie, J.B. 1911 Episode in the Life of the
Rev. Neil Mackenzie at St Kilda from 1829 to 1843
(privately publ.)
MacKenzie, M. 1921 Account of visit in MacKenzie,
O.H. (1853) A Hundred Years in the Highlands
Edward Arnold, London
MacIain 1886 Note in Celtic Magazine, 11,124–126
MacKenzie, N. 1905 ‘Notes on the birds of St Kilda’
Annals of Scottish Natural History, 14, 75–80,
141–153
MacInnes, J. 1899 The Brave Sons of Skye, Norman
MacLeod, Edinburgh
MacKenzie, N. 1906 ‘Bardachd Irteach’ Celtic Review,
2, 328–342
MacInnes, J. and MacQueen, D. 1982 ‘St Kilda
mail’ Tocher, 36–7, 446–450
MacKenzie, Sir George of Tarbat 1681–4 An Account
of Hirta and Rona Published in MacFarlane, W.
Geographical Collections 1908, 3, 28
MacInnes, J. and MacQueen, N. 1961 ‘A folktale
from St Kilda’ Scottish Studies, 5, 215–219
MacIntosh, C.F. 1897 Antiquarian Notes, Inverness
MacKay, J.A. 1963 St Kilda, Its Posts and
Communications. Scottish Postmark Group,
Edinburgh
86
MacKay, J. 2002 Soldiering on St Kilda, Token
Publishing Ltd., Honiton.
MacKenzie, Sir George Steuart of Coul 1817 ‘An
account of the misfortunes of Mrs Erskine of
Grange, commonly known as Lady Grange’
Edinburgh Magazine, 1, 333–339 (published under
‘Gael’)
Mackenzie, W.C. 1905 The Lady of Hirta: a tale of
the Isles, being the narrative of the Rev. Ferchard
Ross, A.M. Paisley
MacKenzie, W. 1880 ‘Leaves from my Celtic portfolio’
Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 9,
19–74
MacKenzie, W.C. The Lady of Hirta (novel)
MacKenzie Papers 1872–1897 Letters sent to J T
MacKenzie, factor, in National Trust for Scotland
Archive
Mackie, D.W. 1974 ‘Some spiders from St Kilda
(Hirta)’ Newsletter of the British Arachnological
Society, 11, 5–6
MacLeod, J. 1910 Reminiscences Moray and Nairn
Newspaper Co. Ltd., Elgin
MacLeod, M. and Watson, J.C. 1934 Gaelic Songs
of Mary MacLeod Blackie and Son, Glasgow
MacLeod Muniments Papers held at Dunvegan
Castle, Skye
MacLeod, R. 1615 Letter to Lord Binning Book of
Dunvegan (ed.) R C MacLeod vol. 2, 1938, 53–55
MacLeod, R. 1986 ‘Domhnallach na Toiseachd ann
an Hiort’ Gairm, 130, 136–142; 131, 252–258; 132,
344–350
MacLeod, R.C. nd The MacLeods: Their History and
Traditions Edinburgh
MacKinnon, D. 1954 ‘The MacPhersons of Skye’
Scottish Genealogist, 1, 2–3, 26–34
MacLeod, R.C. 1938 The Book of Dunvegan vols.1
and 2, The Spalding Club, Aberdeen
MacKinnon, D. and Morrison, A. nd The MacLeods:
The Genealogy of a Clan 3 vols.
MacLeod, W. (Theophilus Insulanus) 1763 A
Treatise on the Second Sight, Dreams and
Apparitions Ruddimans, Auld and Co., Edinburgh
MacKinnon, M. 1986,87 ‘Turus gu Hiort ann an
1970’ Gairm, 137, 13–20; 138, 134–142
MacLachlan, Alice 1906–9 Typescript copy of
diaries in National Trust for Scotland Archive
MacLean, C. 1972 Island on the Edge of the World:
The Story of St Kilda. Tom Stacey Ltd. (Revised
edition Cannongate, Edinburgh 1996)
MacLean, L. 1838 Sketches on the island of St Kilda
McPhun, Glasgow:
MacLennan, M. 1925 Gaelic Dictionary John Grant,
Edinburgh
MacLeod, A. 1988 Biographical notes on John
Macleod in Quine, D.A. St Kilda Portraits
Ambleside, 198–213
MacLeod, B. 1953 ‘Aunt Emily goes to St Kilda’
Countryman, Summer, 245–247
MacLeod, D. 1814 ‘Notices on the present state of
St Kilda’ Scots Magazine, December, 912–913
MacLeod, D.J. 1952 ‘Eilean Hiort’ Gairm, 1, 15–17
MacLeod, J. 1792 Parish of Harris: Old Statistical
Account 1791–9 (ed.) John Sinclair 13, 342–392
MacLeod, J.M. 1871 ‘St Kilda: letter to the Editor’,
The Times 26 August, 10
Mactaggart, F. 1999. St Kilda (Hiort) Site of Special
Scientific Interest (Part II: Geomorphology). Earth
Science Site Documentation Series. Scottish
Natural Heritage, Edinburgh.
Major, J. 1740 Historia Majoris Britanniae tam
Angliae quam Scotiae Edinburgh (first edition 1521)
MacPherson, H.A. 1895 ‘White-fronted Goose in St
Kilda’ Zoologist, 19, 348
MacPherson, H.A. 1897 A History of Fowling
Edinburgh
McQueen, Kelman and Ewan (eds) 1995 St Kilda
Heritage Scottish Genealogy Society, Edinburgh
MacRae, A. 1937 ‘Sooty Shearwaters at St Kilda’
British Birds, 30, 174
McVean, D.N. 1961 ‘Flora and vegetation of the
Islands of St Kilda and North Rona 1958.’ Journal
of Ecology, 49, 39–54
Martin, M. 1698 A Late Voyage to St Kilda London
(Reprint 1986 James Thin, The Mercat Press
Edinburgh)
Martin, M. 1698 ‘Several observation on the North
Islands of Scotland’ Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society, 19, 727–729
87
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Martin, M. 1716 Description of the Western Isles of
Scotland London
Martin, M. 1753 A Voyage to St Kilda (4th ed.)
London
Martyn, K.P. 1988 Provisional Atlas of the Ticks
(Ixodoidea) of the British Isles Institute of Terrestrial
Ecology, Huntingdon
Matheson, W. 1952 ‘Mary MacLeod: her family
connections; her forgotten songs’ Transactions of
the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 41, 11–25
Mathieson, J. 1928 ‘St Kilda’, Scottish Geographical
Magazine, 44, 65–90
Mathieson, J. 1928 ‘The antiquities of the St Kilda
group of islands’, Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, 62, 123–32
Mathieson, J. 1928 Map of St Kilda or Hirta and
Adjacent Islands and Stacs Ordnance Survey
Mathieson, J. 1930 ‘Lone St Kilda’ Scottish Motor
Traction Magazine, August
Mathieson, J. 1930 ‘The evacuation of St Kilda’
Scottish Geographical Magazine, 46
Mathieson, J. and Cockburn, A.M. 1929 ‘St Kilda’
Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society,
12, 287–288
Matthews, A.E.H. 1969 ‘Sappers at St Kilda – 1900’
Sapper Magazine, 78–79
McIver, E. 1905 Memoirs of a Highland Gentleman
Constable, Edinburgh
McNeill, M. 1886 Report on the Alleged Destitution
McNicol, Rev. D.A.M. 1779 Remarks on Dr.
Johnson’s Journey to the Hebrides. T. Cadell,
London
McOwan, R. 1975 ‘Night on bird island’ Scots
Magazine, February, 460–469
88
Mendel, H. 1990 Provisional Atlas of the click
beetles (Coleoptera: Elateroidea) of the British Isles
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Huntingdon
Mercer, J. 1972 ‘Roomed and roomless graindrying kilns: the Hebridean boundary’ Transactions
of the Ancient Monuments Society, 19, 27–36
Merrett, P. 1975 ‘New county records of British
spiders’ Bulletin of the British Arachnological
Society, 3(5), 140–141
Millais, J.G. 1904–06 The Mammals of Great Britain
and Ireland London vol. 2, 186–187
Miller, W.J. 1898 St. Kilda: the Arcadia of the
Hebrides, and Psalms of life
Milner, C. and Gwynne, D. 1974 ‘The Soay sheep
and their food supply’ in Jewell, P.A., Milner, C. and
Boyd, J.M. (eds) Island Survivors; the Ecology of
the Soay Sheep of St Kilda Athlone Press, London
pp 273-325
Milner, W.M.E .1848 ‘Some account of the people
of St Kilda, and of the birds in the Outer Hebrides’
The Zoologist, 2054–2062
Mitchell, A. 1865 ‘Consanguineous marriages on St
Kilda’ Edinburgh Medical Journal, 10 April,
899–904
Mitchell, A. 1901 ‘List of some accounts of visits
to St Kilda 1549–1900’ Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland, 35, 440–442
Mitchell, P.I., Webb, A., Pollack, C.M., Reid, A.,
Mavor, R.A. and Dunn, T.E. 2002 ‘The status of
breeding seabirds on St Kilda in 1999 and 2000.
JNCC, Peterborough
Mitchell, W.R. 1990 St Kilda A Voyage to the Edge
of the World Oban Times, Oban
Mitchell, W.R. 1992 Finlay MacQueen of St Kilda
Oban Times, Oban
McOwan, R. 1979 ‘Allan Aitken’s last voyage’ Scots
Magazine, July, 348–356
Moir, DG., Young, A., Bartholomew, J.C., Simpson,
D.C. and Smith, R.L.1973 The Early Maps of
Scotland to 1850 Royal Scottish Geographical
Society, Edinburgh
McVean, D.N. 1961 ‘Flora and vegetation of the
islands of St Kilda and North Rona in 1958’ Journal
of Ecology, 49, 39–54
Moisley, H.A. 1966 ‘The deserted Hebrides’
Scottish Studies, 10, 44–68
Meinertzhagen, Mrs. A.C. and Col. R.M. 1923
‘Occurrence of Faeroe Snipe in the British Isles’
Scottish Naturalist, 123
Molony, E. 1951 Portraits of Islands
Momise, T. 2000 The Natural History of British Breeds
Sheep Nihon Vogue Co. Ltd., Tokyo (in Japanese)
Moore, P. 1987 ‘Gannet hunter’s bothy on Stac
Lee, St Kilda’ Vernacular Buildings, 11, 12–14
Moray, R. 1678 ‘A Description of the island of Hirta’
Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society of
London, 12, 927–929
Morgan, J.E. 1861 ‘The Falcon among the Fulmars;
or six hours in St Kilda’ MacMillan’s Magazine,
June, 104–111
Morgan, J.E. 1862 ‘The diseases of St Kilda’ British
and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, 29,
176–191
Morrison, A. 1966 ‘The Contullich Papers’
Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 44,
33–97
Morrison, A. 1968 ‘The Harris Estate Papers’
Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 45,
33–97
Morrison, A. 1969 ‘The Island of Pabbay’ Clan
MacLeod Magazine, 6, 17–23
Morrison, A. 1974 The MacLeods: The Genealogy
of a Clan vol. 4, 1974
Morrison, A., Johnson, P. and Pollard, A. 1993 ‘St
Kilda (Harris Parish)’ in (ed.) C.E. Batey Discovery
and Excavation in Scotland, Council for Scottish
Archaeology, Edinburgh
Morrison, A., Pollard, A. and Huntley, J. 1994 ‘St
Kilda (Harris Parish)’ in (ed.) C.E. Batey Discovery
and Excavation in Scotland Council for Scottish
Archaeology, Edinburgh
Morrison, A., Johnson, P. and Huntley J. 1995 ‘St
Kilda (Harris Parish)’ in (ed.) C.E. Batey Discovery
and Excavation in Scotland Council for Scottish
Archaeology, Edinburgh
Morrison, A. 1998 An Introduction to the Later
Settlement History of St Kilda Published
electronically by World Archaeological Congress
Morrison, D. 1975 in (eds) N. MacDonald and A.
Morrison The Morrison Manuscript
Morton, K.G. 1906 ‘On some Trichoptera collected
in St Kilda by Mr Waterston’ Annals of Scottish
Natural History, 153
Muir, T.S. 1858 St Kilda, A Fragment of Travel
Edinburgh
Muir, T.S. and Thomas, F.W.L. 1860 ‘Notice of a
beehive house in the island of St Kilda’
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, 3, 225–232
Muir, T.S. 1861 Characteristics of Old Church
Architecture etc in the Mainland and Western Isles
of Scotland Edinburgh 213–223
Muir, T.S. 1885 Ecclesiological Notes on Some of
the Islands of Scotland Edinburgh 61–66
Munro, D. 1774 Description of the Western Isles of
Scotland, called Hybridies; with genealogies of the
chief clans of the Isles Edinburgh (Also contains
Account of Hirta and Rona, by Sir George
McKenzie of Tarbart. Description of Saint Kilda by
Alexander Buchan Voyage to Saint Kilda in 1697,
by Martin .Martin.)
Munro, D. 1818 Description of the Western Isles of
Scotland called Hybrides, by Mr. Donald Munro,
High Dean of the Isles, who travelled through most
of them in the year 1594. Miscellanea Scotica, 2
Munro, J. and Munro R.W. 1986 Acts of the Lords
of the Isles 1336–1493 Scottish History Society,
Edinburgh
Munro, R.W. 1982 ‘Hirta of Harris?’ West Highland
Notes and Queries, 18, October 1982, 16–19
Murchison, T.M. 1959 ‘Deserted Hebridean isles:
notes and traditions’ Transactions of the Gaelic
Society of Inverness, 42, 283–344
Murray, A. 1735 A Politicall Whim concerning St
Kilda one of the Western Isles of Scotland written in
the year 1735 National Library of Scotland Adv.Ms.
29.1.1vii ff 169–72
Murray, G. 1886–7 St Kilda Diary of George Murray
National Trust for Scotland Archive
Murray, J. 1905 ‘Microscopic life of St Kilda’ Annals
of Scottish Natural History, 94–96
Murray, S. 1981 ‘A count of gannets on Boreray,
St Kilda’ Scottish Birds, 11, 205-211
Murray, S. and Wanless, S. 1986 ‘The status of the
Gannet in Scotland 1984–5’ Scottish Birds, 14,
74–85
Murray, S. and Wanless, S. 1996 ‘A census of the
St Kilda gannetry in May 1994’ Scottish Birds, 18,
152–158
89
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Murray, S. 2002 ‘Birds of St Kilda’ Scottish Birds, 23
suppl. 64pp
Murray, S. and Love, J.A. (in press) ‘Cetaceans of
St Kilda’ Hebridean Naturalist
Napier Commission 1884 ‘Highland Crofters:
Report of her Majesty’s Commissioners of Enquiry
into the Conditions of the Crofters and Cottars in
the Highlands and Islands of Scotland’
Parliamentary Accounts and Papers 34
Newstead, R. 1903 Monograph of the Coccidae of
the British Isles 2 London
NicDhomhuaill, A. 1990 Turas chun an eilein
Steornabhagh, Acair, Leodhas
Nicol, T. 1931 By Mountain, Moor and Loch to the
Dream Isles of the West Stirling
Nicholson, E.M. and Fisher, J. 1940 ‘A bird census
of St Kilda, 1939’ British Birds, 34, 29–35
Nicolson, J. 1937 ‘John Sands’ Shetland Times,
3.7.1937
Oswald, D.A. 1925 ‘St Kilda’ Scots Magazine,
September, 419–421
Oxford University Press 1931 St Kilda Papers
Pankhurst, R.J. and Mullin, J.M. 1991 Flora of the
Outer Hebrides Natural History Museum
Publications, London
Peacock, J.D., Austin, W.E.N., Selby, I., D.K.,
Harland, R. and Wilkinson, I.P. 1992. ‘Late Devensian
and Flandrian palaeoenvironmental changes on the
Scottish continental shelf west of the Outer
Hebrides’ Journal of Quaternary Science, 7,
145–161
Pennie, I.D. 1958 ‘Early medicine in the Highlands
and Islands’ Scottish Medical Journal, 3, 398–408
Pennie, I.D. 1964 ‘Scottish Ornithologists: 1 Sir
Robert Sibbald’ Scottish Birds, 3, 159–167
Pennie, I.D. 1966 ‘Scottish Ornithologists: 2 Martin
Martin’ Scottish Birds, 4, 64–73
90
Phillips, R.A., Thompson, D.R. and Hamer, K.C.
1997 ‘The population and feeding ecology of great
skuas Catharcta skua at St Kilda’ Contract report to
SNH, Inverness
Phillips, R.A., Bearhop, S., Hamer, K.C. and
Thompson D.R. 1999 ‘Rapid population growth of
Great Skuas Catharcta skua at St Kilda: implications
for management and conservation’ Bird Study, 46,
174–183
Phillips, R.A., Thompson, D.R. and Hamer, K.C.
1999 ‘The impact of great skua predation on
seabird populations at St Kilda: a bioenergetics
model’ Journal of Applied Ecology, 36, 218–232
Pickard-Cambridge, O. 1905 ‘Spiders of St Kilda’
Annals of Scottish Natural History, 14, 220–223
Pike, O.G. 1910 Through Birdland Byways with Pen
and Camera London
Pike, O.G. 1946 Nature and My Cine Camera
London
Pollard, A. 1998 New horizons: St Kilda and the
Colonisation of Scottish Islands Published
electronically by World Archaeological Congress
Pollard, A. and Will, B. 2000 Archaeological
fieldwork on Hirta, St Kilda: The 1999 season
Glasgow University Archaeological Research
Division Report 702
Pollock, C.M., Mavor, R.A., Weir, C.R., Reid, A.,
White, R.W., Tasker, M.L., Webb, A. and Reid, J.B.
2000 ‘The distribution of seabirds and marine
mammals in the Atlantic Frontier, north and west of
Scotland. JNCC, Peterborough
Pollock, K. 1963 ‘Great skua breeding on St Kilda’
Scottish Birds, 2, 427
Pomfret, A.A. 1931 ‘The evacuation of St Kilda’
Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service, 17
Pont, A.C. 1986 Provisional atlas of the Sepsidae
(Diptera) of the British Isles Institute of Terrestrial
Ecology, Huntingdon
Petch, C.P. 1932 ‘Additions to the flora of St. Kilda’
Journal of Botany, 70, 169–171
Poore, M.E.D. and Robertson, V.C. 1949 ‘The
vegetation of St. Kilda in 1948’ Journal of Ecology,
37, 82–99
Petch, C.P. 1933 ‘The vegetation of St. Kilda.’
Journal of Ecology, 21, 92–100
Powell, L.F. 1940 ‘The history of St Kilda’ Review of
English Studies, 16, 44–53
Powell, M. 1990 Edge of the World Faber and Faber,
London
Power, W.A. 1983 The Log of the Olivia Richmond
Praeger, R.L. 1897 ‘Flora of St. Kilda’ (note) Annals
of Scottish Natural History, 1897, 53
Quine, D.A. 1982 St Kilda Revisited Dowland Press,
Frome. (Revised edition 1989.)
Quine, D.A. 1988 St Kilda Portraits Dowland Press,
Frome
Quine, D.A. 1991 ‘Australian MacQeens – Links
with St Kilda’ St Kilda Mail, 15, 4–9
Quine, D.A. 2000 St Kilda Colin Baxter Island
Guides, Colin Baxter (Revised edition)
Quine, D.A. (ed.) 2001 Expeditions to the Hebrides
By George Clayton Atkinson in 1831 and 1833
Maclean Press, Isle of Skye
Quine, T.A.1983 Excavations in Village Street, Hirta,
St Kilda 1983 Ms. Report to National Trust for
Scotland, Edinburgh
Rae, B.R. 1954 ‘Heron on St Kilda’ Scottish
Naturalist, 66, 39
Rankin, N. 1935 ‘Notes from St Kilda’ Bird Notes
and News, 16, 105–108
Read, R. 1916. ‘Land-rail on St Kilda’ British Birds,
9, 255
Register of the Great Seal of Scotland 1912 vol. 1
(1306–1424); 1892 vol. 7 (1603–1620)
Report. 1867 Report on the State of Education in
the Hebrides. Education Commission (Scotland)
Parliamentary Paper 1867 (cd. 3845–iv), 25, 812
Report. 1884 Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners
of Inquiry into the Condition of the Crofters and
Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Parliamentary Paper 1884 (cd. 3980), 34, 18
Report. 1885 Second Report of Her Majesty’s
Commissioners for Inquiry into the Housing of the
Working Classes: Scotland. Parliamentary Papers
1884–5 (cd. 4409), 41, 9–10
Report. 1901 Eleventh Decennial Census of the
Population of Scotland. Parliamentary Papers 1901
(cd. 1257), 129, 288
Report. 1904 Report of the Departmental
Committee on Whaling and Whale-curing in the
North of Scotland. Parliamentary Papers 1904 (cd.
2138), 42, 449
Report. 1914 Report to the Board of Agriculture for
Scotland on the Home Industries in the Highlands
and Islands. Parliamentary Papers 1914 (cd. 7564),
32, 88, app. ix, 224
Richards, E. 1982 ‘Highland emigrants to South
Australia in the 1850s’ Northern Scotland 5 (no. 1),
1–29
Richards, E. 1992 ‘The decline of St Kilda:
demography, economy and emigration’ Scottish
Economic and Social History, 12, 55–73
Richards, O.W. 1932 ‘Sphaeroceridae from
St Kilda’ Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 68,
262–263
Ridley, G. 1983 St Kilda – A Submarine Guide G
Ridley, Glasgow
Ritchie, J.E. 1931–2 ‘Tertiary ring-structures in
Britain’ Transactions of the Geological Society of
Glasgow, 19, 83–86
Robertson, A.W. 1960 ‘The St Kilda “Mailboats’’’
Strand Stamp Journal, 4, no 2, 109–111
Robertson, A., Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, M., Albon, S.D.
and Clutton-Brock, T.H. 1992 ‘Early growth and
sucking behaviour of Soay sheep in a fluctuating
population’ Journal of Zoology, 227, 661–71
Robson, R. 2001. St Kilda (Hiort) Site of Special
Scientific Interest (Part I: Geology). Earth Science
Site Documentation Series. Scottish Natural
Heritage, Edinburgh.
Roebuck, W.D. 1890 ‘Census of Scottish land and
freshwater Mullusca’ Proceedings of the Royal
Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, 10, 437–503
Roebuck, W.D. 1892 ‘Additions to the authenticated
comital census of the land and freshwater
Mollusca of Scotland’ Annals of Scottish Natural
History, 104–107
Roebuck, W.D. 1895 ‘Additions to the authenticated
comital census of the land and freshwater
Mollusca of Scotland’ Annals of Scottish Natural
History, 149–154
91
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Roebuck, W.D. 1918 ‘The Molluscan fauna of the
Outer Hebrides’ Scottish Naturalist, 275–286
Ross, A. 1884 ‘A visit to the island of St Kilda’
Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and
Field Club, 3 (1883–8), 72–91
Ross, Alexander 1895 Scottish Home Industries
Ross, J.C. 1890 St Kilda Ms. Account. National
Trust for Scotland, Edinburgh, Bute Box
Rothschild, M. 1955 ‘The distribution of
Ceratophyllus borealis Rothschild 1906 [1907] and
C. garei Rothschild, 1902 with records of
specimens intermediate between the two’
Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of
London, 107, 295–317
Sankey, J.H.P. 1988 Provisional atlas of the harvest
spiders (Arachnida: Opiliones) of the British Isles,
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Huntingdon
Schofield, P. 1975 ‘Puffins on St Kilda in 1972’ Bird
Study, 22, 233-237
Scott, A. 1956 ‘The amphipod Orchestia gammarella
in St Kilda’ Scottish Naturalist, 68, 125
Scott, H. 1923 Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae vol. 4,
1923 Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh
Scott, H. 1926 Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae vol. 6,
1926 Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh
Rothschild, M 1958 ‘Fleas from the nest of the
St Kilda wren (Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis Seeb.)’
Entomologist, 91, 76
Scott, H. 1928 Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae vol. 7,
1928 Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh
Rothschild, N.C. 1907 ‘A new British flea’
Entomologist, 43, 11
Scott, H. 1950 Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae vol. 8,
1950 Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh
Roy, A. 1970 All Evil Shed Away John Long,
London (Novel)
Scott, W.R. 1914 Report to the Board of Agriculture
on Home Industries in the Highlands Parliamentary
Paper
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland 1928 The Outer Hebrides,
Skye and the Small Isles Edinburgh
Scottish Record Office nd Memory of St. Kilda,
1930–1980 (exhibition leaflet.)
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland 1998 St Kilda, Settlement
and Structures on Hirta The National Trust for
Scotland/Historic Scotland
Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland
Papers (Collection of letters, receipts etc relating to
Kelsall Fund for St Kilda)
92
Sands, J. 1878 ‘Notes on the antiquities of the
island of St Kilda’ Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, 12 (1876–8), 186–192
Seebohm, H. 1884 ‘On a new species of British
Wren’ Zoologist (3) 8, 333–335
Selby, I. 1989. The Quarternary geology of the
Hebridean continental margin. Unpublished PhD
thesis, University of Nottingham.
Rutherford, I. 1964 At the Tiller
Seton, G. 1878 St Kilda Past and Present Edinburgh
(1980 reprint, James Thin, The Mercat Press,
Edinburgh)
Ryder, M. 1968 ‘The Evolution of the Scottish
breeds of Sheep’ Scottish Studies, 12, 127–167
Seton-Watson, R.W. 1931 ‘The strange story of
Lady Grange’ History, 16, 12–24
Ryder, M. 1974 ‘Some Wool Cloth from St Kilda’
Scottish Studies, 18, 133–135
Seymour, W.A. 1980 A History of the Ordnance
Survey Wm. Dawson and Sons, Folkestone
Ryder, M.L. 1991 ‘Milestones in the history of
sheep: 2 the Soay breed of St Kilda’ Ark, 18, 131
Shand, A.I. 1897 The Lady Grange Smith, Elder and
Co. London (Novel)
Sands, J. 1876 Out of the World; or, Life in St Kilda,
MacLachlan & Stewart: Edinburgh
Sharbau, H. 1860 Plan of St Kilda Village Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, Mss collection 158
Sands, J. 1877 ‘Life in St Kilda’ Chambers Journal,
1877, 284–287, 312–316, 331–334
Sharkey, J. 1986 The Road Through the Isles
Wildwood House
Sharp, D. 1888 ‘Entomological Society of London
meeting notice’ Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine,
25, 117
Shaw, M.F. 1980 ‘St Kilda: The Last Summer’ Scots
Magazine, August, 510–514
Skene, W.F. 1880 A History of Celtic Scotland (3
vols.) David Douglas, Edinburgh
Small, A. (ed.) 1979 St Kilda Handbook National
Trust for Scotland, Edinburgh
Smit, F.G.A.M. 1957 ‘The recorded distribution and
hosts of Siphonaptera in Britain’ Entomologist’s
Gazette, 8, 45–75
Smith, K.G.V. and V. 1983 A Bibliography of the
Entomology of the Smaller British Offshore Islands
E.W. Classey Ltd., Faringdon
Smith, L.H.M. 1983 The Road to the Isles
MacDonald, Edinburgh
Smith, M. 1963 A Collection of Invertebrates from
St Kilda between 1961 and 1963 The Nature
Conservancy (Unpublished)
Smith, R.A. 1875 ‘A visit to St Kilda in 1873’ Good
Words, 141–144, 264–269
Smith, R.A. 1879 A Visit to St. Kilda in ‘The Nyanza’
Robert MacLehose, Glasgow
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Notes of
Donations and Purchases for the Museum (now the
National Museums of Scotland) PSAS 3 1857–1860
p 212; PSAS 12 1876–1878 p185; PSAS 27
1892–1893 p244; PSAS 31 1896–1897 pp153–5;
PSAS 46 1911–1912 p373; PSAS 51 1916–1917
p12; PSAS 60 1925–1926 p245; PSAS 62
1927–1928 p134; PSAS 64 1929–1930 p245; PSAS
65 1930–1931 pp14,298; PSAS 76 1941–1942
p133; PSAS 91 1957–1958 p203; PSAS 99
1966–1967 p 267; PSAS 101 1968–1969 p 296;
PSAS 103 1970–1971p245; PSAS 110 1978–1980 p
536
Spackman, R.A. 1982 Soldiers on St Kilda Uist
Community Press, Uist
Sprott, G. 1993 ‘From fowling to poaching’ in (ed.)
Cheape, H. Tools and Traditions: Studies in
European Ethnology presented to Alexander Fenton
National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh St Kilda
Mail Annual publication of the St Kilda Club
Steel, T. 1965 The Life and Death of St Kilda The
National Trust for Scotland
Steel, T. 1975 The Life and Death of St Kilda
Fontana
Steel, T. 1988 The Life and Death of St Kilda
Fontana Paperbacks, London
Steel, T. 1994 The Life and Death of St Kilda Harper
Collins, London
Stell, G.P. and Harman M. 1988 Buildings of St Kilda
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland/HMSO, Edinburgh
Stevenson, I.R. 1994 ‘Male-biased mortality in Soay
sheep’ Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cambridge
Stewart, A. 1877 ‘The St Kilda Maids’ Song’ Gael,
6, April 1877, 125
Stewart, A. and Stewart, D. 1804 A Choice
Collection of the Works of the Highland Bards
T Stewart, Edinburgh
Stewart, M. 1931 ‘Bibliography of St Kilda’ in
St Kilda Papers Oxford University Press, Oxford
Stewart, M. 1938 ‘Natural History notes on
Scottish Islands’ Scottish Naturalist, 10, 107–114
Stoker, M.S., Hitchen, K. and Graham, C.C. (1993)
United Kingdom Offshore Regional Report: the
Geology of the Hebrides and West Shetland
Shelves, and Adjacent Deep-water Areas, HMSO
for the British Geological Survey, London
Stoker, M.S. and 8 others. 1994. ‘A record of late
Cenozoic stratigraphy, sedimentation and climate
change from the Hebrides Slope, NE Atlantic
Ocean’ Journal of the Geological Society, 151,
235–249
Stone, J.C. 1988 ‘The St Kilda archipelago’ St Kilda
Mail, 12, 4–7
Stone, J. 1989 The Pont Manuscript Maps of
Scotland: Sixteenth Century origin of a Blaeu Atlas
Tring
Sutherland, D.G. 1984 ‘The submerged landforms
of the St Kilda archipelago, Western Scotland’
Marine Geology, 58, 435–442
Sutherland, D.G. and Walker, M.J.C. 1984 ‘a late
Devensian ice-free area and possible interglacial
site on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland’ Nature, 309,
701–703
93
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Sutherland, D.G., Ballantyne, C.K. and Walker, M.J.C.
1984 ‘Late Quaternary glaciation and environmental
change on St Kilda, Scotland, and their
palaeoclimatic significance’ Boreas, 13, 261–272
Sutherland, Dr. 1887 ‘Flora of St Kilda’ Transactions
of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club,
3, 218–222
Svensson, R. 1954 Lonely Isles Stockholm, 12–41
Tasker, M.L., Moore, P.R. and Schofield, R.A. 1988
‘The seabirds of St Kilda 1987’ Scottish Birds, 15,
21–29
Taylor, A.B. 1961 ‘Early Maps of Scotland’ Scottish
Geographical Magazine, 77, 37–43
Thompson, G.B. 1934 ‘The parasites of British
birds and mammals’ Entomologist’s Monthly
Magazine, 70, 204–207
Thompson, G.B. 1952 ‘Records of British
Hippoboscidae’ Scottish Naturalist, 2, 70–73
Thomson, R. 1891 A Cruise on the Western Isles
Glasgow
Thornber, I. 1990 ‘St Kildans no more’ Scots
Magazine, December, 278–288
Taylor, A.B. 1969 ‘Norsemen in St Kilda’ Saga Book,
17 (1966–9), 116–44
Thorsell, J., Levy, R.F. and Sigaty, T. 1997 ‘A global
overview of wetland and marine protected areas
on the World Heritage List. Natural Heritage
Programme, IUCN Gland, Switzerland
Taylor, A.B. 1969 ‘The name “St Kilda”’ Scottish
Studies, 13, 145–158
Trollope, A. 1878 How the ‘Mastiffs’ went to
Iceland Virtue and Co., London
Taylor, J.W. 1907–21 Monograph of the land and
freshwater Mollusca of the British Isles Leeds
Turner, G.A. 1895 ‘The successful preventative
treatment of the scourge of St Kilda (Tetanus
neonatorum), with some considerations regarding
the management of the cord in the new-born
infant’ Glasgow Medical Journal, 43, 161–74
Taylor, K.G. 1982 ‘Larus marinus feeding ecology
and hunting behaviour on Dun, St Kilda’ PhD
Thesis, University of St Andrews
Taylor, K. 1985 ‘Great black-backed gull Larus
marinus predation of seabird chicks on three
Scottish islands’ Seabird, 8, 45–52
Tewnion, A. 1957 ‘Unique sheep of St Kilda’ Scots
Magazine, 1957, 430–435
Thomas, F.W.L. 1860 ‘Notice of beehive houses in
Harris and Lewis’ Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, 3, 1860–62, 127–144
Thomas, F.W.L. 1862 ‘Notice of a beehive house in
the island of St Kilda’ Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, 3, 1860–62, 225–232
Thomas, F.W.L. 1870 ‘On the primitive dwellings
and hypogea of the Outer Hebrides’ Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 7
(1866–8), 153–195
Thomson, D.S. 1978 ‘Subterfuges of a Sennachie’
Glasgow Herald, 14.12.1978, 8
Thomson, D.S. 1993 The MacDiarmid Ms.
Anthology Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, Edinburgh
94
Thompson, F. 1970 St Kilda & Other Hebridean
Outliers David & Charles, Newton Abbot
Turrill, W.B. 1927 ‘The Flora of St. Kilda.’ The Botanical
Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles
Report 8: 428–444
‘Viator’ 1818 ‘St Kilda poetry’ Scots Magazine,
March, 241–242
Wade, E.W. 1914 ‘Great Shearwaters at St Kilda’
British Birds, 8, 76–77
Wager, R.L. 1953 ‘Extent of glaciation in the island
of St Kilda’ Geological Magazine, 90, 177–181
Wager, R.L. and Bailey, E.B. 1953. ‘Basic magma
chilled against acid magma’. Nature, 172, 68–69
Walker, J. 1980 Report on the Hebrides (ed.)
Margaret M. Mackay John Donald, Edinburgh
Walker, J.W. 1932 ‘Some records of insects from
St Kilda’ Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 68,
146–150
Walker, J.R 1883 ‘‘Holy Wells’ in Scotland’
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, 17, 152–210
Walker, M.J.C. 1984 ‘A pollen diagram from St. Kilda,
Outer Hebrides, Scotland [anthropogenic effects
subsidiary to climatic effects?]’ New Phytologist,
97, 99–113
Walker, M.J.C. 1993. Glean Mor, Hirta. In: Gordon
J.E. and Sutherland, D.G. (eds), Quaternary of
Scotland. Geological Conservation Review. London,
Chapman and Hall, 431–434.
Waters, W.E. 1964 ‘St Kilda winter’ Scots Magazine,
March, 543–545
Waterson, J. 1905 ‘Notes on the mice and birds of
St Kilda’ Annals of Scottish Natural History, 14,
199–202
Waterston, A.R. 1981’Present knowledge of the
non-marine invertebrate fauna of the Outer
Hebrides’ Proceedings of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, 79B, 215–321
Waterston, J. 1906 ‘On some invertebrates from
St Kilda’ Annals of Scottish Natural History, 15, 150–153
Waterston, J. 1906 ‘On some Scottish Siphonaptera’
Annals of Scottish Natural History, 15, 211–214
Waterston, J. 1923–24 ‘St Kilda’ Proceedings of the
South London Entomological Natural History
Society, 1–11
Waterston, J. 1926 ‘A note on Allomyia debellator
Fab.’ Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 62, 98
Waterston, J. and Taylor J.W. 1906 ‘Land and
freshwater molluscs of St Kilda ‘Annals of Scottish
Natural History, 15, 21–24
Weir, T. 1984 ‘The Curse of St Kilda’ Scots Magazine,
March, 630–635
Weir, T. 1996 ‘St Kilda rediscovered’ Scots Magazine,
February, 187–191
West, J.F. 1986 ‘Only the men go chasing the chicks’
The Guardian 30 August
Wiglesworth, J. 1903 ‘St Kilda and its Birds’
Reprinted from the Transactions of the Liverpool
Biological Society Liverpool
Williamson, K. 1948 The Atlantic Islands London
Williamson, K. 1951 ‘Wrens of Fair Isle and St Kilda’
Ibis, 93, 599–601
Williamson, K. 1958 ‘Population and breeding
environment of St Kilda and Fair Isle wrens’ British
Birds, 51, 369–393
Williamson, K. 1958 ‘Menace of the gulls at St Kilda’
Bird Notes, 28, 330–334
Williamson, K. 1958 ‘Ancient St Kilda’ Scottish Field,
March, 46–49
Williamson, K. 1958 ‘Life on St Kilda’ Scots Magazine,
October
Williamson, K. 1959 ‘Snipe at St Kilda’ Bird Notes,
29, 5–8
Williamson, K. 1960 ‘Development of young Snipe’
as studied by mist netting Bird Study, 7, 63–76
Williamson, K. 1960 ‘From cleit to cottage’
The Countryman, 57, no. 3, August 1960, 505–510
Watson, W.J. 1926 The History of the Celtic Place
Names of Scotland Edinburgh
Williamson, K. and Boyd, J.M. 1960 St Kilda Summer,
Hutchinson: London
Weir, T. 1956 note in ‘My Month’ Scots Magazine,
October, 25–29
Williamson, K. and Boyd, J.M. 1963 A Mosaic of
Islands Edinburgh
Weir, T. 1957 note in ‘My Month’ Scots Magazine,
July, 286–287
Williamson, R. 1615 Statement taken 13.5.1615 in
Calendar of State Papers of Ireland 1625–1625
(eds) Charles W Russell and John P Prendergast
1880 Longman and Co., London 57–59
Weir, T. 1958 ‘Beathe ur air seain Eilean’ Gairm, 3,
271–273
Weir, T. 1969 ‘Two men on the Stacs’ Scots
Magazine, December, 260–265
Weir, T. 1982 note in ‘My Month’ Scots Magazine,
September, 625–631
Wilson, J. 1842 A Voyage round the Coasts of
Scotland and the Isles 2, Adam & Charles Black:
Edinburgh
Wilson, J. 1842? St. Kilda: letter addressed to John
Tawse, esq., secretary Society for Propagating
Christian Knowledge.
95
7
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Wilson, J. 1842 ‘Additional Notice Regarding St Kilda’
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 32, 178–180
Withers, C.W.J. 1999 ‘Reporting, Mapping,
Trusting: Making Geographical Knowledge in the
Late Seventeeth Century’ Isis, 90, 497-521
Wood, J.G. nd My Feathered Friends
d. Address where inventory,
records and archives are held
Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow,
G3 8AG, Scotland, United Kingdom
Principal repository for artefacts and archaeological
finds from St Kilda. Currently holds on loan the
NTS St Kilda collection.
Dunvegan Castle, Isle of Skye
Former owners, the MacLeods have an interesting
display of St Kilda artefacts amd memorabilia.
Historic Scotland, Longmore House, Salisbury
Place, Edinburgh, EH9 1SH, Scotland, United
Kingdom
(historic-scotland.gov.uk)
Holds documentary and photographic records.
Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Seabirds
and Cetaceans, Dunnet House, 7 Thistle Place,
Aberdeen, AB10 1UZ, Scotland, United Kingdom
Holds seabird census data and cetacean sightings
records from St Kilda.
Museum nan Eilean, Francis Street, Stornoway,
Western Isles, HS1 2NF, Scotland, United
Kingdom
Repository of artefacts, photographs and
documentary material from St Kilda.
Museum nan Eilean, Sgoil Lionacleit, Benbecula,
Western Isles, HS7 5PJ, Scotland, United
Kingdom
Repository of artefacts, photographs and
documentary material from St Kilda.
National Archives of Scotland, H.M. General
Register House, Edinburgh, EH1 3YY, Scotland,
United Kingdom
(nas.gov.uk)
Holds documentary sources and a limited
photographic record of St Kilda.
96
National Monuments Record of Scotland, John
Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh,
EH8 9NX, Scotland, United Kingdom
([email protected])
Extensive photographic records, plans, elevations
and other drawn materials resulting from recent
surveys. Also archive material from previous
archaeological excavation, and historic archive
photographs. Publicly accessible.
Finlay MacQueen with a puffin he caught and stuffed himself
School of Scottish Studies, University of
Edinburgh, 27 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8
9LD, Scotland, United Kingdom
([email protected])
Major collection of ethnographic material from St
Kilda, including sound recordings and major
collections of old photographs.
Scottish Natural Heritage, Advisory Services,
Maritime Group, 2 Anderson Place, Edinburgh,
EH6 5NP, Scotland, United Kingdom
(snh.org.uk)
Holds marine natural heritage records, underwater
videos and photographs from St Kilda.
Scottish Natural Heritage, Stilligarry, Isle of
South Uist, Western Isles, HS8 5RS, Scotland,
United Kingdom
(snh.org.uk)
Holds natural heritage records and photographs
from St Kilda.
The National Trust for Scotland, Wemyss House,
28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4ET,
Scotland, United Kingdom
([email protected])
Documentary records from 1957 and before, plus
archival records and photographs of past
conservation works and condition monitoring
exercises. Includes the St Kilda Club archives, and
those of the Highland Agricultural Society.
University of Aberdeen Library, Queen Mother
Library, Meston Walk, Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen,
AB24 3UE, Scotland, United Kingdom
([email protected])
Holds the George Washington Wilson Collection of
late 19th-century photographs of life on St Kilda.
97
8
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Signed on behalf of the State Party
Full name:
JACK McCONNELL
Title:
FIRST MINISTER
Date:
98
January 2003
Acknowledgements
The development of the revised nomination document for the St Kilda World Heritage Site was carried out
by a Steering Group comprising:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ian Melville (Scottish Executive)
Manson Wright (Scottish Executive)
Robin Turner (The National Trust for Scotland)
Richard Luxmoore (The National Trust for Scotland)
Lorraine Bell (The National Trust for Scotland)
Kevin O’Carroll (Department of Trade and Industry)
Sally Foster (Historic Scotland)
Ken Kennedy (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar)
Jim Reid (Joint Nature Conservation Committee)
John Love (Scottish Natural Heritage)
John Baxter (Scottish Natural Heritage).
A large number of other individuals have contributed to the production of the document, including:
Calum Ferguson who wrote ‘St Kilda’s language and culture’;
Josephine Pemberton who provided data on Soay and Boreray sheep;
Mary MacLean (SNH) who provided the Gaelic translation of The First Ministers’ Introduction;
Past wardens of St Kilda, all of whom have provided valuable biological records, but especially Jim
Vaughan, Stuart Murray and Andy Robinson;
The geology text was written by John Gordon, George Lees and Colin MacFadyen (all SNH) with a
contribution by Fiona MacTaggart. The text was reviewed by Jim Hansom (Glasgow University) and by
various staff at the British Geological Survey, including Howard Johnson, David Stephenson, Alick Leslie,
Ruth Hoult, Joseph Bulat, Rhys Cooper, Heather Stewart, Nicholas Golledge and Sandy Henderson;
Tony Weighell (JNCC) and Christopher Young (English Heritage) who provided guidance to the Steering
Group and contributed to the revised nomination document;
Andy Webb (JNCC) produced the maps of seabird distribution around St Kilda and Claire McSorley
produced the figure depicting common guillemot distribution at the Isle of May;
Ian Mitchell and Tim Dunn (JNCC) provided data on seabird breeding numbers;
The Hydrographic Office, Ministry of Defence, Taunton, Somerset for supplying charts;
David Donnan (SNH) co-ordinated interpretation of the seabed survey data;
Mary Harman;
Bob Foster-Smith (University of Newcastle) drew the diagram of the littoral and sublittoral zonation;
Paul McCormack (DCMS);
Susan Bain, Jill Harden and Julie Duff (NTS);
Astron Document Services Ltd., with particular thanks to the Graphic Design Team.
99
Kilda
St
Revised Nomination of
for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List
Image Acknowledgements
The following sources of images in the document are gratefully acknowledged. The images are all
copyright of the photographers /organisations. More specific picture credits are contained in the Revised
Nomination Document.
Aerofilms
Alexander Bennet/NTS
Andy Robinson
Archibald Maynard/NTS
Colin Baxter
Ben Buxton
D. Scott/NTS
David Donnan/SNH/JNCC
Davina Graham/Glasgow Museum
G.D. Hay/Crown Copyright
George Washington Wilson/ University of Aberdeen
Glasgow Museums
Highland Council
Isla Robertson/NTS
J. Strachan/NTS
James Fenton/NTS
Jill Harden/NTS
Jim Vaughan/SNH
John Baxter/SNH/JNCC
John Love
Maclean Press
National Museums of Scotland
Neil Ferguson Collection
National Trust for Scotland (NTS)
Paul Johnson/NTS
R.M.R. Milne/NTS
RCAHMS
Richard Luxmoore/NTS
Robert Atkinson/ School of Scottish Studies
Robin Turner/NTS
Rohan Holt/SNH/JNCC
School of Scottish Studies
Sharbau/Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland/Sir John Dyke Acland
Sue Scott/SNH/JNCC
Susan Bain/NTS
100
© Crown Copyright 2004
Astron B38477 12/04